


What we are pt 10

by AXEe



Series: What we are [10]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Family, Fluff, Kara still thinks she's a wedding planner, Project Cadmus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-24
Updated: 2017-03-15
Packaged: 2018-09-26 14:46:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 20,768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9906173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AXEe/pseuds/AXEe
Summary: Alura readjusts to life on Earth, Alex and Astra fend off Kara and her wedding plans, and Cadmus rears its ugly head.  In other words, a normal day.  AU of "Crossfire"





	1. Out on the Town

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! Welcome to Chapter One of Part Ten of What we are!!!! (YAY!!!), you know, I seriously never thought I'd make it past Part Two, let alone all the way to Part Ten, and I couldn't have done it without everyone's kind comments and encouragement, so, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. Now, that that's out of the way...ONWARDS!!!!

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

It’s been so long between the words we spoke  
Will you be there up on the shore, I hope  
You wonder why it is that I came home  
I figured out where I belong

\--Florence + the Machine: “Long & Lost”  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

**Astra**

“Alura! Get up!” I shook her arm, but her only response was to roll over and continue snoring “all right, fine, be that way” I firmly grabbed her arm and unceremoniously threw her onto the floor. She let out a totally and completely inelegant _squeak_ as she hit the floor with a loud _thud_. The impact wouldn’t hurt her, but it did wake her

“What was that?” Alex called out from the kitchen “Astra, I swear if you two broke something…”

“its fine, love,” I called back “Alura simply fell out of bed” from her position on the floor Alura glared at me

“Fell?” she demanded “you _threw_ onto the floor!”

“It woke you, did it not?” she scowled at me as she clambered to her feet

“I see why Alexandra fell in love with you,” she grumbled “you both share a love of violence”

“So, is this what you two were like as kids?” we both turned to see Alex leaning in the doorway, looking far too smug for my liking

“More or less,” I admitted “I’m sure you and Kara had your fair share of fights as children”

“Oh sure,” she agreed “but usually she was the one who pushed me out of bed,” she smiled at Alura “are you all right?” she asked, Alura inclined her head respectfully at Alex in response

“I am fine,” she answered “only my dignity was injured” Alex smirked at the two of us

“Well, when you’re done I got breakfast ready” she said, turning to leave  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“What…is this?” Alura asked, staring at the stack of pancakes in front of her

“They’re called ‘pancakes’,” I explained “its food”

“I see…” she said slowly “and how does one _eat_ this food?” I held up the fork and knife “oh”

“When you’re finished I have a surprise for you” I explained, Alura frowned as she tried to cut her pancake into more manageable pieces (so far she’d only succeeded in butchering them)

“Your ‘surprises’ always end badly” she stated, I scoffed

“Name one”

“Well, there was the time you set fire to Mother’s lab trying synthesize a new fuel compound, the time you convinced Zor-El to give you sub-orbital fireworks and nearly started a planetary panic, the time that you and Non both tired to ‘surprise’ me by sneaking to a restricted area and got all three of us arrested, and who can forget the time that you and Kara---”

“I said name ‘one’,” I scoffed, I glanced up at Alex, who sat there sipping her coffee, trying hard not to laugh “I’m glad you find this so amusing” I muttered, she grinned

“Very,” she answered, she smiled at Alura “what Astra means is that after you’re done eating we’re going to go out and meet Kara” she explained, I watched as Alura slowly stopped eating, looking between us with wide eyes

“Out,” she repeated “as in ‘out’ from this place? Out into the city at large?”

“If you’d like,” I said “we won’t force you into anything, sister” I reminded her

“So?” Alex prompted gently “would you like that?”

Alura nodded  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

After breakfast the two of us herded Alura into the master bedroom where we dug around through my clothing to find something that she’d like. Finally settling on a pair of slacks and a simple blouse

“How does one fasten this?” she asked, holding up a bra

“Oh, here,” Alex took it from her and—clearly avoiding looking at Alura’s breasts—slipped the undergarment on and fastened it for her “there you go” she stepped back to join me in scrutinizing Alura

“Something’s missing,” I realized “hair”

“What about my hair?” Alura asked, fingering her curls

“It’s too long” I declared, her eyes widened

“No,” she said, holding up her hands “no, not again, do you remember what happened the last time you tried to cut my hair?”

“We were five,” I pointed out as I advanced on her “that’s hardly an excuse….”  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Is something burning?” Alex asked as she knocked on the bathroom door

“It’s fine, love,” I dismissed “I was only using my heat vision”

“On _what?_ ” she demanded

“Alura’s hair,” I explained “I can’t exactly use a pair of scissors, now can I?”

“How bad is it?” Alex wondered

“See for yourself” I opened the door and allowed her in, gesturing to Alura, who sat on the closed toilet, cringing

“Wow,” Alex said “that’s actually pretty good” Alura opened her eyes and looked up at us, finally chancing a look in the mirror, smiling at what she saw. I had simply shorted her hair, cutting it so that it fell just under her chin, long enough to be attractive, but short enough to be manageable

“Well?” I asked, Alura turned to me, smiling

“This is lovely, sister,” she said “thank you”

“Oh,” Alex reached into her pocket “here we are,” she held out three cards to Alura “your IDs,” she explained “Winn even got you a social security card” she added as Alura took the cards and examined them

“Alana Zorel” she read, frowning

“It’s better than mine,” I shrugged “my Social Security card says my name is ‘Ashley Linda Inzeli’.” 

“Yeah, why ‘Linda’?” Alex wondered as my cell phone buzzed, displaying a text from Kara, which simply read

WHERE ARE YOU?!?!?!?!?

I sighed and quickly called her back

“Hello, Kara”

“ _Where are you guys?_ ” she demanded “ _you said you’d be here by one, it’s now one fifteen_ ”

“Kara,” I laughed “a difference of fifteen minutes is not the end of the world,” I reminded her “we will be there, don’t worry” I could practically _hear_ her scowl

“ _You’d better_ ” she warned petulantly

“Good bye, Kara” I hung up

“What is it this time?” Alex wondered “we’re too late and missed her devouring the restaurant’s entire stock?”

“Something like that,” I dismissed, I turned to Alura, who was still examining her new hairstyle in the mirror “shall we, sister?” I asked, she blinked, looked somewhat embarrassed, and then nodded

“OK,” Alex began as we headed out into the hall “now, what’s your cover story?” she asked Alura, who sighed

“My name is Alana Zorel,” she began as we stepped into the elevator “I’m Kara’s mother and I am utterly human”

“Good,” I nodded “and if anyone asks what happened after the Danvers adopted her?”

“After a fire, I was taken to a hospital where I spent the last several years in a coma as an unidentified woman while Kara thought that I had perished in the fire, which is why no one could find me until I awoke recently”

“Sounds about right,” Alex muttered as we stepped out into the lobby, she turned back to Alura “OK, here we go,” she began, a hand on the door which would take us out of the building “Alura Zor-El…welcome to Earth”


	2. The Revolution Will Be Televised

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Astra and Alura bond some more, Alura meets her daughter's boyfriend, and Cadmus rears its ugly head

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, here's Chapter Two of Part Ten of What we are, enjoy! :=)

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

**Alex**

The three of us were meeting Kara and James at Noonan’s, frankly I was a little worried, because Alura hadn’t really met James yet, at least not by himself, she’s met Winn of course because my fiancée/her sister is a big, giant nerd who stays up half the night playing video games with him and somehow manages to rope me into it no matter how many times I say no. But anyway, all through the drive over to Noonan’s I kept giving Astra ‘looks’ which she would just raise an eyebrow and give me her ‘trust me, I know what I’m doing’ look, which, frankly, scares me half the time

“OK,” I pulled into a space a little ways down from the entrance “we’re here” as we all climbed out of the car I had to smile at the way Alura looked around in wonder, I knew both from Kara’s dream under the black mercy and Astra’s descriptions that National City was nowhere near as spectacular as Krypton had been, but it still was pretty impressive. I watched as Alura paused by a tree, reaching up to finger the leaves, she looked back at us, smiling

“I haven’t seen a tree since we were young;” she commented “do you remember?” Astra nodded, smiling

“I remember that large, old, gnarled thing that grew outside our bedroom window, which was so large that it blocked out the sun half the time” she said, Alura chuckled

“You climbed down it once to go off and see a girl, didn’t you?” Astra smirked

“Almost, until you told Mother” she pointed out

“You were breaking curfew” Alura countered, Astra nodded

“Oh, I see, so _you_ going off to see Zor-El that one time was perfectly acceptable, but my sneaking off wasn’t?” I couldn’t help it, watching them like this, I laughed

“Your betrothed seems to find this amusing” Alura noted as I kept laughing, Astra snorted

“She finds many silly things amusing” she said, I glowered at her

“Hey!” I objected, she smirked and simply held out her arm to me, I happily looped my arm through hers and began to walk towards Noonan’s, Alura keeping step with us, looking around

“’scuse me,” we all paused to see a little girl, no older than four or five looking up at us, she smiled and looked between Alura and Astra “are you twins?” she asked

“CJ!” a woman hissed, presumably her mother “I’m so sorry” she apologized

“No, it’s fine,” Astra said, she crouched down in front of the girl “yes, we are twins” she explained, the little girl, CJ, grinned

“Cool!” she said, I chuckled

“It is,” I said “do you know _why_ they look alike?” I asked, she nodded

“Uh-huh, something went funny in their mommy’s tummy and they came out the same” she answered, I chuckled

“Something like that” I told her, she grinned and waved goodbye as her mother took her hand and lead her away

“Very bright child,” Astra commented, she frowned at Alura “don’t you agree?” Alura blinked

“What? Oh, yes, yes, very bright,” she muttered, she shook her head “I’m sorry, it’s just…she looked so…amazed”

“Twins aren’t all that rare here,” I explained “in fact a lot of people find it fascinating instead of abnormal” Alura nodded, still frowning. I looked up at Astra

“Bad memories” she confirmed as we finally stepped into the Noonan’s

“Hey, there you are!” Kara called out, waving us over

“Hello, little one” Astra said

“Hello, Kara” Alura said softly, she smiled at Kara, still looking a little disbelieving that the woman in front of her was her daughter

“Hi, Mom,” Kara replied, just as softly, she frowned “did you cut your hair?”

“I did,” Astra replied “makes it easier to manage” she explained, Kara nodded

“Looks good,” she said “oh, mom, this is James” she nodded to James who stood up and offered his hand, Astra gasped and quickly grabbed his hand

“James,” she shook her head “no, don’t do that, you bow” I blinked

“What?”

“Bow,” Astra repeated “its an insult to offer a hand to a woman in our culture, it means that you’re threatening them,” she explained “ _bow,_ ” she urged, James pulled back his hand and gave Alura a half bow “I’m sorry, sister,” Astra apologized “I assure you he meant no offense, but here, it’s common to shake hands when you first met someone” Alura blinked

“Why would you shake your hands at each other?” she asked

“Oh, Mom, no,” Kara giggled “here,” she took James’ hand and shook it “like that, see?” Alura nodded and awkwardly offered her hand to James and very lightly shook hands with him

“I’m sorry if I offended you” he apologized, she nodded as they dropped hands

“No offense was taken” she replied evenly as we all sat down. Kara grinned suddenly

“Oh, Alex, I just remembered!” I scowled as I saw her pull a big binder from under her chair and put it onto the table

“No” I said simply, she frowned

“No what?” she asked

“No,” I repeated, I nodded to the binder “no wedding plans, I’m serious Kara!”

“Oh come on!”

“Kara!” Astra and I growled simultaneously. We were saved from any further whining on her part by a loud screech of tires outside

“Car accident?” James wondered, Kara and Astra squinted at the wall

“No,” Kara said “bank robbery,” she turned back to us “uh, I gotta…,” she pointed “you know”

“We’ll be here” I said

“Be careful” Astra called out, taking Alura’s hand and squeezing it

“Does she do this often?” Alura wondered

“She’s a hero, sister,” Astra told her “like in the stories we used to read” Alura smirked but still looked worried. There was a sudden bright flash of blue-white from outside and a streak of blue and red suddenly crashed through the wall

“Kara!” Alura and the rest of us rushed forward, crowding around Kara as she weakly sat up. Looking back over my shoulder through the gaping hole in the wall, I saw three men, none of whom were wearing masks, load up an SUV with three big duffel bags of cash and pile inside before driving off…  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Don’t touch the sleeping pills, they mess with my head  
Dredging up great white sharks, swimming in the bed  
And here comes a killer whale, to sing me to sleep  
Thrashing the covers off, has me by its teeth

And, ah, my love, remind me, what was it that I said?  
I can’t help but pull the earth around me to make my bed  
And, ah, my love, remind me, what was it that I did?

\--Florence + the Machine: “Ship to Wreck”  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“That’s it!” Kara exclaimed as Winn pulled up another alien weapon on the screen at the DEO “right there, that’s it"

“An Andronian particle rifle?” Astra questioned “are you sure?”

“That’s it,” Kara confirmed “how did a bunch of bank robbers get a hold of alien weapons?” she wondered

“I don’t suppose they could have been Andronians?” I wondered

“They weren’t purple with fins, so, no,” Astra answered “Winn, you can track the weapon by the particle decay, it operates by phasing muons” she explained

“Yeah, sure,” Winn nodded “I just need to figure out what a phased muon looks like” he muttered

“What else did they take beside the money?” J’onn wondered, Kara shrugged

“I didn’t really see” she admitted, J’onn nodded

“Agent In-ze, call your friend at NCPD,” he ordered “see if they have any reports of similar robberies involving unusual weaponry”

“I can do that, sir” Susan spoke up, J’onn nodded

“Very well, Agent Vasquez”

“While you’re doing that, Susan,” Astra spoke up “tell Maggie she still owes me twenty dollars”

“You do know that gambling is illegal in this state, don’t you?” Lucy teased, Astra chuckled

“A friendly wager between friends, nothing more” she replied, as the monitors suddenly started flickering

“Agent Schott, report” J’onn demanded

“Yeah, it’s not me,” Winn muttered as he started typing “it’s not just here, it’s everywhere, the whole city’s seeing this” he announced as images of Supergirl and Superman flashed by along with a ghostly face

“ _This is only the beginning,_ ” a distorted voice announced “ _this is the true chaos that amnesty can bring,_ ” a news clip of Kara getting blasted by the bank robberies from this morning flashed by “ _you have been deceived,_ ” the voice continued “ _taught to put your trust in demons disguised as angels, to trust beings who claim that they are here to save us but yet can destroy us with the slightest effort,_ ” a clip of Kara’s red kryptonite-fueled rampage flashed across the screens “ _amnesty is not salvation,_ we _are salvation, we are the saviors of mankind, we are the ones who will lead humanity in its fight against the invaders. We are Cadmus_ ”

“That’s not possible,” I hissed as the screens went back to normal “they were shut down”

“Or so we were told,” Astra muttered “some of their number must have gone rouge, hidden away underground”

“And now they’re declaring open war” J’onn muttered

“Does anybody else find this a little too convenient?” Lucy wondered “I mean, just an hour after a bunch bank robbers, armed with alien tech, get the upper hand over Supergirl, Cadmus announces itself to world as the ‘savior of humanity’?” she shook her head “I don’t buy it”

“You think is more than just coincidence” Astra reasoned

“I think that Cadmus is supplying these guys with the guns” Lucy nodded

“Makes sense,” Winn reasoned “they give the guns to the bad guys and then they can say ‘look, we told you so, we were right all along, aliens are nothing but trouble, let’s just get rid of them’.”

“So, what do we do?” Kara wondered

“We fight back,” Astra snarled “just like we did with Henshaw”

“Except that Henshaw and Colonel Harper were rouge elements,” J’onn pointed out “their actions weren’t sanctioned by Cadmus”

“And giving alien weapons to criminals is?” Kara demanded

“I didn’t say that,” J’onn told her “but, Henshaw had gone rouge, it was just him on a one-man crusade, even Harper had no real idea of what Henshaw was planning, all he knew was an alien had infiltrated the DEO. This time it’s different. This time we’re facing who knows how many people”

“This is my fault,” Astra muttered “I caused this”

“You? How?” Kara demanded

“After we defeated Hensahw, I…goaded Cadmus, taunted them,” she explained “I caused this”

“No you didn’t,” I told her “ _they_ did, not you, all _you_ did was protect your family” she smiled softly at me and quietly nodded, not quite believing me, but willing to put her faith in me

“Excuse me,” we all turned, suddenly realizing that Alura had been standing there all this time and no one had filled her in “but, could anyone, kindly explain to me what exactly is going on?”


	3. Crossfire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cadmus ups the ante

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Welcome to Chapter Three of Part Ten of What we are!!! (yay!), by the way, just saw the new episode, spoiler alert, Dean Cane fans look away!!! Anyway, here we are, the update to Part Ten of What we are, which will combine elements both from "Crossfire" and from "The Adventures of Supergirl", i.e. the plot with Metallo, anyway, enjoy and ONWARDS!!

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Seven devils all around me  
Seven devils in my house  
See they were there when I woke up this morning  
I’ll be dead before the day is done

Seven devils all around you  
Seven devils in your house  
I was dead when I woke up this morning  
I’ll be dead before the day is done  
Before the day is done

\--Florence + the Machine: “Seven Devils”  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

**Astra**

“I don’t understand,” Alura sighed after I’d explained what we knew about Cadmus, which was, admittedly and frustratingly, mostly rumor and speculation “why would this…’Cadmus’ attract some much fear among Earth’s alien population?”

“Because, until Kal-El revealed his existence to the world at large, many humans thought that they were alone in the universe,” I explained “that they were possibly the only planet capable of supporting life”

“That is…,” she frowned “an incredibly egotistical and self-centered way of thinking”

“Agreed,” I nodded “but remember, we ourselves once thought the same for close to a thousand years,” I reminded her “you have to understand, for most people on this planet, first contact with alien life was something that would never happen in their lifetimes, it was always merely academic, a flight of fantasy, something that wouldn’t happen for at least another century. So, to suddenly encounter a being who not only came from another world, but with the powers that our kind possesses, that frightened many people”

“And this ‘Cadmus’ is one such group” she reasoned, I nodded

“Agent In-ze, ma’am?” I looked up as Vasquez peered inside the door “you might want to come out here, ma’am” she requested

“What’s going on?” I asked as I followed Susan back into Command

“A military convoy heading to our facility in Nevada was just hijacked,” J’onn explained “we don’t have all the details yet, but it sounds like the hijackers were using alien weaponry”

“Cadmus” I realized

“It sure looks that way” Alex confirmed

“Agent In-ze and I will fly over there and check it out,” J’onn ordered “see if we can find out what the hell just happened,” he turned to Kara “Supergirl, go to your other job,” he instructed “you’re a reporter now, use that to your advantage, find out anything you can about recent robberies using alien weaponry” she nodded

“Got it,” she smiled at me as J’onn changed into his true form “good luck”

“Likewise” I replied…  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“ ** _It’s down there,_** ” J’onn pointed below us, I cringed as I saw several military vehicles scattered along the roadway, along with several bodies “check for survivors” J’onn ordered as we landed

“ _Astra, report,_ ” Alex asked over my comm. “ _what’s going on over there?_ ”

“It looks like a massacre,” I answered bluntly as I walked through the carnage, scanning each body for signs of life and finding none “whoever did this knew what they were doing,” I realized as I examined the burn marks on the vehicles, recognizing many of the patterns from weapons I’d encountered before in combat “it appears that they attacked the convoy from all sides, quickly and without warning. These men never stood a chance”

“Astra! Over here!” J’onn called out from behind an overturned truck, I jogged around, finding him standing over two men, one was dressed in black fatigues, the over in U.S. Army camouflage, they were both unconscious, but breathing

“Alex, we have two survivors,” I reported “one might be one of the hijackers, the other is General Lane”

“ _Damn it,_ ” she swore “ _they’re getting ballsy. Stand by, we’ve got medics en route_ ”  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

In less than an hour J’onn and I were back in National City, General Lane had been transported with us to the DEO, while the hijacker—who’s injuries were less severe—had been transported to a military hospital in Nevada under armed guard

“How’s he doing?” Lucy asked as she came up to me

“I don’t know,” I admitted “he’s still in surgery,” I explained “Lucy…,” I began “he’s injuries were quite severe” I warned, she nodded, clearly trying not to lose all control as Dr. Hamilton emerged from the operating room behind us

“How is he?” Lucy asked, Dr. Hamilton sighed

“He’s going to be fine,” she smiled “the surgery was complete success,” she declared “in a few hours he might even be awake and terrorizing my nurses” she added, Lucy sighed in relief and suddenly sagged against the wall

“Oh, thank god” she muttered

“You should thank General Astra,” Dr. Hamilton pointed out “if she hadn’t cauterized that wound in his abdomen en route he might’ve bled out before he got here” Lucy looked at me in surprise

“Think nothing of it, Lucy” I dismissed, she shook her head

“I can’t, you…you and he were enemies once, he even tortured you, but you saved his life”

“I did it because it was the right thing to do,” I said simply “your father and I will probably never see eye-to-eye, and I highly doubt that we’ll ever become friends, but, for all his flaws, your father is a good man and a good solider, and I respect that” she suddenly threw her arms around me, hugging me tightly

“ _Thank you_ ” she whispered into my shoulder

“You’re welcome, Lucy” I told her

“Lucy,” we both looked up to see Winn awkwardly standing there, he smiled weakly “is this just a girls only thing or can I join?” he asked, Lucy grinned and pulled away from me and hurried to embrace him, and I suddenly wondered if her father knew about Winn

“They make a cute couple, don’t they?” I smiled at Alex as she came up to me

“They do” I agreed

“Hey guys,” Winn murmured as he and Lucy came up to us, arms around each other’s waists “so, what was that convoy carrying that would make Cadmus so…bold?” Winn wondered, Alex sighed

“It was transporting a shipment of weapons-grade kryptonite to our facility at Groom Lake” she explained

“Groom Lake?” he asked “isn’t that…?” I nodded

“Otherwise known as ‘Area 51’,” I confirmed, I frowned at Alex “exactly how much kryptonite does the DEO have access to?” I wondered, she shrugged

“Probably more than we need” she muttered

“Whoa, wait a minute,” Winn held up his hands “are you saying that Area 51 is _real?_ ”

“Really?” Alex asked “ _that’s_ what you got from that? Not the fact that Cadmus now has its hands on enough kryptonite to take out Kara and Astra twelve times over?”

“Right. Sorry,” he apologized “it’s just…I mean, come on! It’s _Area 51!_ That’s like the holy grail of UFOs!”

“Actually its not, Mr. Schott,” J’onn announced as he joined us “Area 51 is, and always has been, just a storage facility for anything that’s highly classified and/or potentially dangerous. Sorry to disappoint”

“Director?” a nurse leaned out of the observation room “General Lane is awake and wants to be debriefed” she reported

“Thank you,” J’onn nodded, he glanced at the rest of us “agents Danvers, Lane, In-ze, why don’t you join me?” he suggested “agent Schott, see if you work on finding our missing kryptonite”

“Will do” Winn nodded. Entering the isolation room, we found General Lane was not only awake, but was indeed terrorizing the nursing staff as Dr. Hamilton perdicted, loudly yelling to one particularly unflappable woman I’ve encountered before named Gail, who remained as unflappable as ever, and even matched Lane insult for insult

“Ah, Director J’onzz,” he greeted weakly, trying—and failing—to sit up “I’m glad to see you,” he nodded at me “you as well, Agent In-ze, I hear I have you to thank for saving my life”

“You’re welcome” I replied

“General,” J’onn began “I know it’ll be hard, but what can you tell us about the hijacking?”

“Not much to tell,” Lane began “everything was going smoothly, until, suddenly, it wasn’t”

“There was no warning?” I asked “nothing amiss or out of the ordinary?” he shook his head

“No, none, just all of a sudden, a group of cars pulled in front of us, they took out two HUMVEEs at once and then took out most of my men,” he grimaced, more in pain over failing to protect those under his command than from his injuries, I knew that pain all too well “they were using some kind of weapon I’ve never seen before,” he continued “possibly alien in origin, it…,” he trailed off and huffed in frustration “I didn’t get a good look at it, but it was long, like a pole or a staff, with a loop at one end”

“Did it look something like a tennis racket?” I asked, he frowned, looking thoughtful

“Yes. I suppose it did” he finally allowed

“You know what it is?” Lucy asked, I nodded

“A Pyrian fire thrower, it fires ball of highly charged plasma” I explained

“Explains the state of the bodies,” Alex muttered “most of them look like they were hit with heat vision”

“I don’t suppose…?” J’onn ventured, Lane shook his head

“No, they were human. Or at least not Kryptonian” he confirmed

“Thank you, General,” J’onn thanked him “you get some rest now”

“Director,” Lucy spoke up “I’d like to…” J’onn nodded before she could finish

“Of course,” he said simply “agent Danvers, agent In-ze, with me”

“Hey, what about me?” Winn asked

“Well, you could stay here with your girlfriend and her father, or you can work finding us kryptonite” J’onn suggested, Lane lifted his head and looked between Lucy and Winn in surprise

“Girlfriend?” he echoed

Winn all but ran out of the room  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“That was rather mean for you” I noted as Alex and I followed J’onn out of the isolation room, he shrugged

“Lucy would never have told her father otherwise” he dismissed

“I feel bad for Winn,” Alex began “Lane’s probably going to skin him alive”

“Possibly, but possibly not,” I pointed out “for all we know, General Lane may approve of Winn dating his daughter”

“That’s a good one, tell me another,” Alex scoffed “I still can’t _believe_ how easily you can talk to him after what he did to you”

“That’s because you’re not a soldier, love,” I pointed out “soldiers understand that, in war, actions will be taken that, in hindsight, are regrettable or even immoral or unthinkable in times of peace”

“That still doesn’t mean I have to like him”

“No one’s saying you have to like him,” J’onn told her “just work with him”

“Well, can I still despise him even if I have to work with him?” she wondered

“Can we get back on topic, please?” J’onn grumbled

“Right. Sorry,” Alex muttered “uh,” she pulled out a tablet PC “we got a match on our hijacker’s fingerprints, John Corbin,” she indentified “he’s a mercenary for hire, there’s been evidence linking him to everything from revolutions in Africa, to that recent insurgence in Kasnia”

“Makes sense that Cadmus would use mercenaries” J’onn noted “they’re paid to not ask questions”

“Leaving a very weak trail leading directly back to Cadmus” I noted

“Right now what worries me more is what Cadmus is planning on doing with the kryptonite they stole” J’onn grumbled

“And how exactly they found out about the shipment in the first place” I added

“It might be an inside job,” Alex ventured “Cadmus might have somebody here, inside the DEO”

“If that’s true, then we’re all in trouble” J’onn noted grimly


	4. The Other Shoe Has Dropped

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara gets her first official assignment as a reporter, Alex and Alura have a talk, Winn finds out something surprising, and Alex finds evidence that Cadmus does have a mole inside the DEO

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, here's Chapter Four of Part Ten of What we are, hope everybody enjoys this and looks out for Chapter Five

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Good god, under starless skies  
We are lost, and into the breach, we got tossed  
And the world is coming in fast

\--Florence + the Machine: “Ship to Wreck”  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

**Kara**

When I got to CatCo the entire floor was just buzzing with activity, replays of the Cadmus video were playing the TVs and people were yelling out orders for ‘copy on Cadmus’

“Hey,” I looked over as James jogged up to me “I just heard you OK?”

“No, I’m not OK,” I grumbled “first we got those robbers and now…,” I waved my hand around the room “… _this_ ”

“Staff meeting in Ms. Grant’s office!” Eve Teschmacher called out as she ran past us carrying a big stack of papers

“Oh, boy” I muttered

“Come on” James gripped my shoulders and gently steered me towards the doors

“All right people, what do we know so far?” Ms. Grant demanded as we all filed into her office “is there any connection between this ‘Cadmus’ and these robberies?” she glanced around the room, almost she was daring us to say ‘yes’ “all right, here’s what we’re going to do, Masters, get over to the NCPD, talk to any contacts you have about these robberies, Ellison, talk to Washington, see what they know about Cadmus and get them to tell you about it,” she turned to James and I “Olsen, Danvers, you get LuthorCorp”

“LuthorCorp?” I repeated

“Hmm, yes, since Lex Luthor’s sister took over, little Lena Luthor has tried to rebrand the company as ‘L-Corp’, and right now they claim that they have a new device that can tell whether or not people are aliens or humans, and since you two both got an exclusive with the President last week on her Alien Amnesty Act, I figured we’d keep with the theme,” she glanced around the room “any questions? No? then, go!” we all hurried out “Ker-iah, just a moment”

I cringed, sent a prayer that I wouldn’t be fired from my new job, and turned back to face her

“Yes, Ms. Grant?” I asked, she smirked and reached into a drawer, pulling out a flash drive and holding it out to me

“When you see your sister, or your aunt, next give them this” I stared at it

“What is it?” I asked

“Oh, nothing,” she waved it off “just some reports of various robberies all done by a gang of thieves using some very fancy toys”

I slowly nodded as I realized what I was holding

“Right,” I said, I’m still a little wigged out that she knows I’m Supergirl “I’ll be sure to give this to them whenever I see them next” I said, Ms. Grant smirked as she leaned back into her chair

“You do that,” she said “now then, I believe you and your boyfriend have an assignment to do?”

“Right, we’ll get right on that, Ms. Grant” I hurried out of the room  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

**Alex**

I swung back a leg and continued pummeling the bag in front of me, watching as it swung back from my kicks and punches, but as I kept up the attack I noticed that someone was steadying the bag. Pausing for breath, I leaned over and saw Alura smirking at me from behind the bag

“You looked as if you could use some assistance” she said

“Thanks” I panted out

“If you don’t mind my saying, you seem…troubled, Alex,” she commented as I took a drink of water “is there something you’d like to talk about?” I sighed

“It’s…everything,” I sighed “Cadmus, this Alien Amnesty Act, you. Everything” she nodded slowly

“I see,” she began “you feel overwhelmed, that any chance at happiness you might have been able to have with Astra is now over, that this is, what is the expression? The other shoe dropping?” I nodded

“No, it’s…,” I sighed as I realized that she was right, I _did_ feel that way “yeah, that’s it, exactly” I groaned

“If I may be so bold, it seems to me that your lives will never be calm, quiet, safe,” she pointed out “therefore you must make the most of what you have, treasure the peaceful moments,” I blinked as I looked up at her, amazed at how easily she figured out what was bothering me, she smirked “you forget,” she added, as if reading my mind “I spent years keeping Astra steady, there would be times when she would return from a tour of duty, she would put on a brave face, smile for Kara, smile for Zor-El, regale us all with fantastical tales, but once we were alone, once it was merely the two us, she would…break, cry for those she lost, for those she couldn’t save, for all the needless fallen who now lay dead on some battlefield light-years away,” she smiled at me “you’re very much like her, Alex,” she commented “you put the needs of other ahead of yourself, and while that is a trait to be admired, it does not mean that you must sacrifice your own happiness, or feel as if you don’t deserve such things”

For a long moment I stared at her, wondering how she and Astra could’ve been driven so far apart near the end, how they could’ve become something closer to enemies instead of sisters

“Thank you” I finally said, she chuckled

“I should be thanking you,” she remarked “you gave my daughter a home, helped her to find her place in your world, you helped Astra, freed her from the horrors of Fort Rozz, you taught her to love again, reminded her that she didn’t have to resort to violence and extremism to achieve her goals,” she shook her head “for that, Alexandra Danvers, I can never thank you”  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

**Kara**

“So, what can you tell us about this ‘alien detector’?” I asked, the representative from L-Corp reminded me a little too much of Maxwell Lord, he had that same kind of smugness

“Well, Ms. Danvers,” he began “the device is quite simple,” he opened a locked drawer and pulled out a small, egg-shaped device, it was about the size of my hand and actually looked like a paperweight, just something you’d have sitting on your desk “keep in mind this is just a prototype, but put simply all you have to do is press you finger here,” he pointed to a little indent with a light “the device then measures differences in skin texture, body temperature to determine whether or not the person being scanned is human or not, completely non-invasive,” he put it down on the desk “we hope to have one of these in every store and business in the country by next year” he boasted

“Uh, but wouldn’t something like this infringe of people’s rights?” James wondered “I mean we’re a country of immigrants, shouldn’t people, alien or not, have the right to privacy?”

“Your right, we are a country of immigrants,” the PR guy nodded as James snapped a picture of the device “but up until a few years ago we were also country of humans, people deserve to have the right to know or not if the person next to them is one of them or not,” he picked up the device “here, let me show you how simple it is,” he pressed his thumb in the little slot “this is what a negative response looks like,” the thing beeped and the light turned green “there see? That means that the person being scanned is human,” he held it out to us “now you try”

“All right” James held out his hand, the device beeped and turned green again

“There we are, proof that Mr. Olsen is one hundred percent human,” the PR guy smiled and held it to me “Ms. Danvers?” for a moment I considered refusing until I remembered something Aunt Astra said to me once, just because people know I’m alien doesn’t mean that they know I’m Supergirl

So I put my hand out and pressed my thumb into the slot. The device beeped and the light turned yellow

“What does that mean?” I asked, as the PR guy started to sweat

“It, uh, it means that, uh, the person, ahem, being scanned is, a, an, uh…alien” he finally mumbled

“Oh,” I kept my face perfectly blank, silently thanking Aunt Astra and Alex for the lessons “well, I think we have everything we need”

“Uh-huh” he mumbled  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“I’m surprised,” James said as we got into the car “I didn’t think you’d do that”

“Neither did I,” I answered “until I remembered something Aunt Astra said to me once, just because people know I’m an alien doesn’t mean that they know I’m Supergirl. And besides, why shouldn’t I be proud of what I am and where I come from?” he nodded

“That’s a very mature attitude,” he said “I’m proud of you”

“I’m proud of me too” I agreed  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

**Alex**

“Winn, _please_ tell me you found something?” I groaned as Lucy and I marched into his lab, yep he has his own lab now

“Uh, sort of,” he answered “do you remember when we took out Rudy Jones?”

“I still have nightmares about that, but yes, go on” I answered

“OK, well, remember when we tired to track him down by looking Kara’s EM field but we couldn’t find it?”

“I’m really hoping you’re going somewhere with this” I muttered

“Well, OK, remember just before that we told Astra that kryptonite leaves a radioactive trace?”

“Winn!” Lucy snapped “I love you but would you just get to the…,” she trailed off, staring at us, eyes wide “did I just say…?” she asked

“Yeah,” I nodded “yeah, you did” she nodded

“I’m, uh, gonna, go,” she pointed “over there. Right now” she turned and all but ran out of the room. I had to laugh a bit and turned back to face Winn, who was standing as still as a statue 

“Winn,” I waved a hand in front of his face “come on, Winn, focus”

“Agent Danvers?” I looked over as Vasquez poked her head in “we’ve got another robbery”  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“You know, I’ve seen some pretty weird shit, but flying police cars takes the cake so far” Maggie Sawyer said as Astra and I walked up to her

“Nice to see you too, Sawyer” I said as I looked around the scene, our thieves were getting cocky. We were outside the National City diamond exchange, they’d apparently run off with about half a million in uncut diamonds and then, just for fun, stayed around to harass the cops and Kara

“Your perps used some kind…. _something_ to send one of our cruisers into orbit” Maggie explained, handing us a tablet which showed a video of the thieves using some kind of horseshoe-shaped device to fling a cop car into the air

“You recognize it?” I asked, Astra shook her head

“No, but it’s clearly not human”

“Well, that much is obvious,” Maggie muttered, her eyes widened “oh, hey, let me see the ring,” I sighed and held out my hand, my mother’s engagement ring glinting in the sunlight “nice,” Maggie complimented “so, when’s the wedding?”

“We haven’t decided yet” I answered

“But we’ll extend an invitation towards you and Susan if you’d like” Astra offered

“Cool” Maggie grinned, I glowered at Astra

“Can I talk to you?” I grabbed her arm and pulled her aside “do you remember me saying something about a ‘small and simple’ wedding?”

“Yes, but Maggie is my friend, surly I’m allowed to invite my friends to my wedding, aren’t I?”

“Yes, you are,” I sighed “but it’s just…I don’t want this wedding to turn into some kind of _event_ ”

“It won’t” Astra assured me as our cell phones buzzed

“Text from Lucy” I read

“Likewise,” she frowned “speaking of which, is she all right, she looked somewhat….flustered when I saw her last” I laughed

“Don’t ask”  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“OK, what am I looking for?” I asked as Winn and I shuffled into the locker room at the DEO, each of us holding a modified Geiger counter that could, hopefully, pick up trace amounts of kryptonite radiation, which our mole would probably have covering their clothing

“You’re not looking, you’re listening,” Winn explained “it should beep” he added as I waved the probe over the lockers, getting nothing at first until I hit the end of the second row, the Geiger counter beeping wildly, I frowned at the locker in front of me, not quite believing what I was seeing, staring with a growing sense of horror and outrage at the name in front of me

S. VASQUEZ

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cliffhanger time!!! :=)


	5. The Other, Other, Shoe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Is it really Vasquez?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Double update!!

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

**Alex**

“Please tell me that we’re wrong” I groaned

“I hope so” J’onn nodded as we stared at Vasquez who was sitting in the interrogation room looking bored while Lucy questioned her

“It’s not Vasquez,” J’onn and I both looked up as Winn walked in “I mean, not unless she wears a size twelve men’s,” he added as he held up a sneaker “and this thing is just soaked in kryptonite radiation” he held up the Geiger counter and switched it on and waved it over the shoe, the Geiger counter beeping so fast it sounded like it was whistling

“All DEO-issued clothing is marked,” I realized as I took the shoe from him, pulling out the tongue to find a name written on it “McGill” I read

“Agent McGill’s been here for years” J’onn pointed out

“Yeah, but, what’s he done?” Winn wondered

“I don’t really know,” I admitted “from what I’ve seen, he’s always just….been…” I trailed off, feeling my stomach drop away

“….part of the scenery,” Winn nodded “who else would make a better mole then the guy that nobody notices?” he suggested “trust me, I what that’s like”

“All right,” J’onn sighed “let’s make sure that they’re not working together,” he marched into the interrogation room, Vasquez and Lucy looking up as Winn and I followed “agent Vasquez,” J’onn began “we have reason to believe you may have been framed”

“That’s what I’ve been telling you” she sighed

“However,” J’onn continued “we need to be sure,” he sighed “would you be willing to allow me to scan your mind?” he asked, she nodded

“Go ahead, sir, I’ve got nothing to hide” J’onn nodded as he pulled the other chair out and set it down next to her, sitting down in it, he looked surprisingly gentle as he reached for her, gently placing his fingertips on her temples

“Close your eyes, and let your mind go blank,” he instructed his own eyes glowing red as he closed them, I wasn’t sure what I was expecting to happen, but basically, from my perspective anyway, J’onn and Susan just sat like that for about half a minute while Winn quietly explained to Lucy what he found, until J’onn slowly pulled away, both of them looking a little dazed “it’s not her” J’onn announced after a few minutes

“All right,” Lucy sighed “for the time being, let’s all pretend that it _is_ Vasquez and let’s give McGill just enough rope to hang himself”

“Right,” I agreed as I followed J’onn out the door “J’onn!” I called out “what is it, what’s wrong?” he stopped and sighed

“Telepathy is a two-way street, Alex,” he sighed “I saw into Vasquez’s mind and she saw into mine” I froze

“So, she saw…?” he nodded “I’m sorry” he shook his head

“It’s all right,” he waved a hand “I tried to keep her away from the worst of it, but still…” I nodded

“Yeah” I mumbled  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Agent McGill?” I called out, McGill turned “we’ve got another shipment of kryptonite to deliver,” I told him “the director wants you to handle it personally”

“I don’t understand,” he said “I thought you caught the mole”

“We did,” I lied smoothly “but the director doesn’t want to take any chances, so he’s wants to move the kryptonite as soon as possible while we still have the mole in custody” McGill nodded

“Understood, I’ll get on that right away”

 _’I’ll just bet you will’_ I thought as he walked away, I tapped my comm.

“Got him”

“ _All right, you and Astra follow him,_ ” J’onn ordered “ _remember,_ no heroics _, you first priority is to find out where he’s going and to recover the kryptonite, understood?_ ”

“Copy that” I replied  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I’ll say this for McGill, he was paranoid. He led us all over the city and the surrounding county, finally coming back into the city and pulling into an abandoned warehouse in the Warehouse District, near the docks

“ _The man is either extremely cautious or paranoid_ ” Astra muttered over my comm. as I pulled the old clunker I requisitioned from the DEO motor pool to a stop

“Probably a little of both,” I replied as I watched McGill start to unload the pallet of sealed kryptonite from the truck “what’s the weather like up there?”

“ _The same as down there,_ ” she replied “ _wait, I see movement, stand by,_ ” she reported before she sighed “ _false alarm, it was only a cat_ ”

“Figures,” I muttered as I watched McGill struggling to unload the heavy pallet onto the dolly, finally dropping it down with a bang “finally,” I muttered as he started to wheel into the warehouse “all right, I’m going in”

“ _Alex, we have a direct order not to engage,_ ” Astra snarled “ _we’re only to observe and recover the kryptonite_ ”

“I _am_ recovering the kryptonite,” I told her as I got out of car “I’m also recovering some answers too,” I added as I slipped inside the warehouse, gun at the ready “McGill, freeze!” I ordered, he stopped, looking…not all that surprised that I’d followed him “drop your weapon, nice and slow,” he slowly slid his sidearm out its holster and put it on the floor, kicking it over to me “now, you’re going to tell me everything you know about Cadmus” he sighed, glancing at something off to the side

“No. I won’t” he said, there was the bang of a gunshot from behind me and his head snapped back, his body falling to the floor. I whirled around, someone kicking my legs out from under me before I had a chance to fully turn around. I grunted as I sat up, cringing at the sight of three big, burly, thugs-for-hire-type men standing over me, guns drawn, between them stood a woman. She was older than me, probably in her late forties, but she might have been older than that, her dark blonde hair was pulled back behind her head in a tight bun, and her eyes, they gave me the creeps, they reminded me of when I first saw Astra, cold and crazy

“Agent Alex Danvers of the DEO,” she began, smirking at me “how nice to finally meet you,” she glanced up at the ceiling “you can come down now, General,” she called up, there was a quiet woosh and Astra gently landed next to me “how touching,” the woman continued “I always thought that working with your wife of fiancée was a recipe for disaster, so I’m glad to see that you two proved me wrong”

“You have us at something a disadvantage,” Astra commented “you seem to know us, yet we haven’t had the pleasure of knowing your name”

“Call me a concerned party,” the woman remarked as she took a step forward, studying Astra “General Astra In-ze,” she began “I must say I’m surprised at your supposed turn around, killing your own husband, falling in love with Alex here, joining the DEO, you even got a medal from the President, I must say, it’s almost storybook-like. It seems a pity that you won’t be able to show us the rest of your new life,” she nodded to one of the three goons, he turned and fired

“Astra!” I watched, horrified, as Astra collapsed to the floor, gasping in pain as blood soaked through the leg of her jeans near her knee

“Now, really, Alex,” the woman tisked in disapproval “I would’ve thought that you, of all people, would know that we’d have defenses against their kind,” she turned to her goons “gentlemen, I’ll leave you to it” she turned and walked away, calmly slipping out of a side door with one of her goons.

The two remaining goons turned towards us, guns drawn

Never let it be said that Astra and I don’t give up without a fight. I sprang to my feet, knocking one goon’s gun away, I tuned at a shout, watching Astra grabbed Goon Number Two’s leg and hauled him down to the floor where she quickly punched him out while I kept grappling with Goon Number One

“Come on!” I knocked him senseless long enough to grab Astra and haul her over behind the pallet of kryptonite, each crate was lined lead, so it should have offered us both some protection “how bad is it?” I asked I leaned past the stack of crates and fired while the goons took cover behind some pallets themselves, bullets flying everywhere

“Middling,” Astra groaned as she tore off the hem of her t-shirt and quickly tied a tourniquet around her leg “the bullet’s still in my leg,” she added as she drew her own gun and started shooting, taking out one goon with one quick shot “I told you!” she snarled as she ducked back behind the pallet “our orders were to observe _only_ ”

“Well, at least we got some information” I muttered as I reloaded

“What information?” she demanded “McGill is dead, we don’t know the identity of that woman, and Cadmus still has the kryptonite, and I just ruined my favorite shirt!” she snarled and popped up over the crate firing twice, killing the second, and last, goon easily “remind me why I’m marrying you again?” she wondered as she sat down next to me, gasping for breath in the sudden silence

“Because I’m the only one who will put up with you long enough to want to marry you” I told her


	6. Dad's Mad

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> J'onn gets mad and Kara has a plan to catch the thieves

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, here's Chapter Six of Part Ten of What we are, hope everybody enjoys it :=)

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What’s with the long face? Do you want more?  
Thousands of red-eyed mice, scratching at the door  
And don’t let the curtain catch you, ‘cause you’ve been here before  
The chair is an island, darling, you can’t touch the floor

\--Florence + the Machine: “Ship to Wreck”  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

**Astra**

I winced as Alex gently eased the bullet out of my leg, gasping as the icy burn of the kryptonite finally left my body

“Got it,” she whispered “you’ll be all right” she told me

“Will you be?” I wondered as J’onn marched into the room, a nervous Winn standing behind him, trying to look as unobtrusive as possible

“Director—” Alex tried

“Not one word,” J’onn growled “your orders were to observe _only_ ,” he began “what you just did is insubordination, Agent Danvers. You disobey my orders again and you are—”

“Dead?” Winn wondered, J’onn rolled his eyes

“ _FIR-ED,_ ” he all but yelled “consider yourself on desk duty for the foreseeable future. Now, get the hell out of my sight!!” he ordered, Alex nodded and quickly made her escape

“You know…,” Winn began, J’onn turned and glowered at him “I’m going!” Winn turned and all but ran out of the room, J’onn and sighed and finally turned to me

“How are you feeling?” he asked with a sigh

“Sore” I answered

“Sometimes I wonder why I keep putting you two together on assignments” he muttered

“Perhaps because we’re the only two agents willing to work with each other?” I suggested, only partially joking, he smirked

"Not to mention the only two who are _insane_ enough to work with each other," he joked, he sobered “there’re some people who want to see you” he announced, nodding towards the doorway as Kara and Alura stepped inside

“How are you feeling?” Kara asked softly, I smiled at them both

“Better,” I answered, I smiled at Alura who was clearly trying to avoid looking frightened in front of Kara “I’m all right, sister” I told her, with a gasp she suddenly wrapped her arms around me and pulled me close

“I hate it when you do this” she whispered

“I know,” I said “I know”  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

**Alex**

“Are we sure that we can trust her?” J’onn asked as we examined the cards that Kara handed us, they were invitations to a charity gala being held later tonight for the National City Children’s Hospital hosted by Cat Grant, there were four invitations, one for Kara, one for me, one for Winn, and one for Astra, all them said ‘plus one’, but it was the sticky note that Kara’s had come with that caught our attention

Supergirl, a lot of very rich people will be there tonight, maybe you should invite your sister or your aunt

It read

“So, Cat Grant is going to use the gala as bait for the robbers” Lucy figured

“Looks that way” Kara agreed

“But are we certain that we can trust that Cat Grant isn’t just using this to get a story?” J’onn wondered, Kara shook her head

“I don’t think so, she’s known I’m Supergirl for a long time and hasn’t published it yet,” she pointed out “so, I think we can trust her” J’onn sighed and nodded

“All right, agent Schott, you and Astra get to work on a way to shut down these weapons the thieves are using\” he ordered

“Understood” Astra nodded, J’onn turned to us 

“Alex, Lucy scope out the venue, find exits, entry points, when and if these people show up I want the civilians out and the thieves in”

“Got it” Lucy nodded

“And Alex?” he called “this doesn’t mean you’re out of the woods yet, once this is over you’re riding a desk until I say so, clear?”

“Clear, sir” I answered, he nodded

“Go on, get out of here” he ordered

“Hey, Alex, wait up” I turned to see Kara jogging up to me

“What’s up?” I asked

“These invitations, pretty nice, huh?”

“I guess,” I shrugged “why?”

“Well, maybe, you and Astra could use them for the---”

“Kara, I swear, if the next word out of your mouth is ‘wedding’ I will make you eat kryptonite” I snarled

“Wedding” she said simply


	7. Safety Dance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang head to the gala, and Alex and Astra have a nice moment, then Winn helps save the day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Double update!!!

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

**Alex**

“Ow, Kara! My head does not go that far back!” I yelped as I squirmed in the chair in front of my vanity in my bedroom

“Baby,” she muttered as she put down the hairbrush and added more hairspray, which made my nose itch “I really hope you won’t be this whiny when I do your hair for the wedding”

“Who says I having you do my hair for the wedding?” I asked

“Alex!” she exclaimed “you got to let me do it! It’s like a tradition, like choosing me to be the maid of honor,” she said, she pouted at me in the mirror “can I be your maid of honor?” I rolled my eyes

“Of course you’re going to be my maid of honor you doofus,” I told her “the only question is who’s going to be Astra’s?”

“My Mom?” Kara suggested

“There’s a thought” I agreed “ow! Kara you got hairspray in my eye!”

“Sorry, sorry!” I winced as the sting slowly went away “here,” Kara gently wiped at my eye with a tissue “now hold still, I need to redo your eyeliner again” I sighed

“Wonderful” I muttered, there was a sudden crash and a yell from the bathroom

[Astra, hold still!!] Alura’s voice yelled out in Kryptonese [by Rao you are such a child! Stop squirming and it’ll be over quicker!!]

“What the…?” Kara wondered

“Alura’s helping Astra with her makeup and hair” I explained as Kara finished retouching my eyeliner

“There!” she declared proudly. I examined my reflection, Kara had actually done a very good job, she’d added a little wave and ‘bounce’ to my hair and gave me just enough eyeliner and rouge, not so much that I looked like a whore, but just enough so that I looked like I wasn’t wearing any

“Wow,” I said “this is pretty good,” I admitted “are you sure you didn’t miss your calling by not going to beauty school?” Kara laughed

“No, I’m good,” she said as she held out the dress I’d grabbed from the DEO closet. It was a simple, shoulder-less, cocktail dress that stopped above my knee and was a deep maroon in color, very nice actually “I wonder what Aunt Astra will look like?” Kara wondered as the door opened and Alura stepped out

“She’s ready” she announced as Astra slipped out. I felt my jaw drop. The dress was a deep, midnight blue with some sequins around the torso, accenting her pale skin. Like my dress it was shoulder-less but went down to her ankles, flaring out at the waist. Her hair had been rather artfully swept back, leaving that white streak standing out

“Holy carp” I exclaimed

“Is that good?” Alura wondered, Kara giggled

“Yes. Mom, it’s good” she said as Astra ducked her head bashfully at me

“You look lovely as well, love” she complimented

“Thanks” I mumbled, wishing I could have her all to myself for the rest of the evening

“Ahem, Alex?” I blinked and looked over to see Lucy peaking in the door “come on you three, let’s go”

“Lucy, aren’t you going?” I asked as I slipped on the matching heels and walked into the living room

“Can’t, not that I’d want to either way, but I’m babysitting Alura” she explained as James and Winn stood up, both of them looking very handsome in their tuxedos (although, let’s honest here, James looked very good, while Winn looked like a waiter, unfortunately)

“Yikes,” Winn exclaimed “you guys, all three of you, look...yikes”

“We’ll take that as a complement, Winn,” Astra told him as she held out an arm to me “shall we?” she asked, I grinned as I looped my arm through hers, Kara copying me on her other side

“Let’s” Kara agreed  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

**Astra**

“Is there anything to eat here that is more substantial?” I muttered as I devoured my twentieth hors d’oeuvres in less than a minute, I was seriously contemplating simply taking one of the trays for myself when Alex grabbed my arm

“Jeez, slow down, will you?” she waved the server on and pulled me close “come on,” she said “we’re supposed to ‘mingle’, so, let’s mingle”

“And how do you propose we do that?” I inquired

“Dance with me?” she asked, I frowned, on Krypton I had been considered a terrible dancer (although Alura and even Non always insisted I did quite well), here on Earth I didn’t even know the proper steps

“I don’t…the steps are…different” I mumbled, she smiled 

“That’s all right, I’ll lead,” she said, taking my hands “just mirror my movements,” she instructed “ready? And…one, two, three” she deftly led me through a modified waltz

“I didn’t know you could dance” I remarked once I felt confident enough to not step on her feet

“I do OK,” she dismissed “I had actually had to get a crash course when I first joined up,” she explained “just in case I had to dance at some undercover gig” I chuckled

“About a year after we landed here,” I began “we tried to secure funding for Myriad from a…less than legal source,” I explained “it was in a setting much like this, Non was quite incensed when a young woman asked to dance with me”

“Did you?” Alex asked, I shook my head

“I never got the opportunity,” I explained “Non scared her off, threatening to break her neck if she so much as looked at me again”

“Geez” Alex shook her head in disbelief

“If it had been you,” I began “I would’ve agreed to dance no matter how many threats Non made”

“Sweet talker,” she muttered as the tempo changed to something soft and slow, Alex nestled close, resting her head in the crook of my neck “hey, look at that,” she nodded to the side, where Kara and James were similarly entwined, softly swaying to the music as we were “it’s too bad we’re undercover,” Alex muttered “this place is nice”

“It is” I agreed, we were in an outdoor pavilion, a fountain gently bubbled in the middle of the courtyard, while multiple strings of ‘fairy lights’ ran across the area from either side, bathing the whole area in a soft, golden glow

“Maybe,” Alex began “maybe we can have the wedding here,” she suggested “or at least the reception” she added

“That would be nice” I agreed

“Just don’t tell Kara” she teased, I frowned

“I think she already knows,” I nodded towards Kara, who was now energetically talking on her phone, I tilted my head and focused my hearing “she’s asking about booking fees and occupancy” I announced

“Damn it,” Alex scowled “why is she so obsessed about this wedding? It’s _our_ wedding”

“Leave her be,” I dismissed “she’s just happy for us, she wants to do something for us in return for all that we’ve done for her,” I explained “you should just leave her be and, what’s expression? ‘lie back and think of England’?”

Alex burst out laughing

“Hey, guys”

“Oh, hi Winn,” I greeted “everything set up?” he nodded

“Yep, all we have to do is just wait for the bad guys to show up,” he took a bite out of his kebob “hey have you tried these things yet? They’re pretty good”

“I have,” I agreed “try them with the mustard dipping sauce” I suggested just as there was a crash and a scream. Looking up I saw our three thieves march in

“All right!!!” the leader proclaimed “here’s how it’s going to work, everybody puts their jewelry, watches, and wallets into the bag and you might walk away in one piece, if you don’t…” he raised the large, portable plasma cannon at his hip and vaporized the fountain “get moving!!” he ordered as his two associates began to strip the other guests of valuables, there was a woosh and Kara dropped down in front of them in full costume. The leader grinned at her “been waiting for a rematch, sweetie” he sneered as he raised the weapon and fired, Kara matched the blast with her heat vision, the two blasts temporarily canceling each other out

“Hey!” I turned at the shout, seeing Alex draw back a fist and punch one of the thieves who had, apparently, trying to relieve her of her engagement ring

“Come on!” Winn lead us over to a table, ducking underneath it, the two of us following

“Is that a black body generator?” I asked as I studied the device he was currently fiddling with

“It’s suppose to be,” he snarled “but it’s not working”

“Did you check the field coil?” I asked as I examined the device

“Yes”

“What about the secondary inducer?”

“Yes”

“The emitter grid?”

“Yes”

“Do you need to be geniuses to join in on this conversation or can anybody join in?” Alex muttered

“What about the primary coil?” I asked, ignoring Alex for the moment

“Yes!”

“Well then I’m at a loss” I admitted

“Guys, you’d better hurry” Alex announced, peering from under the tablecloth

“I checked this thing two times already, nothing is wrong,” Winn exclaimed “unless…” we both looked up at each other, vocalizing the same thought

“The induction coil!”

“All right, disconnect that black wire,” I instructed “and, yes, that’s right, connect it to the red interface, and---” the device hummed to life

“That’s it” Winn muttered

“All right, get down” I grabbed the device and shoved it out from under the table, almost instantly there was a bright, blue-black shockwave, the weapons the thieves were holding were suddenly ripped from their hands to collide in midair, vanishing into a miniature vortex of light.

For a moment they simply stood there as Kara slowly approached them

“Fight’s over” she proclaimed


	8. Downtime

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang enjoys some downtime

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, here's the update to Part Ten of What we are, enjoy

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

**Alex**

After the spectacular defeat, our three thieves were promptly arrested by NCPD, since their weapons had been destroyed, there was nothing for the DEO to do except hand them over to the NCPD and quietly slip away back into the shadows and behind red tape---Astra’s words, not mine. I don’t really remember what happened after we got home, I do remember seeing Lucy and Alura sitting on the couch watching TV, but everything else just blurred by.

The morning I woke up to the sound of Astra singing in the shower, belting out some Kryptonian song (or maybe she was trying to translate Florence + the Machine into Kryptonese, I’m not sure). Stumbling out of the bedroom I found…Astra in the kitchen munching on a bagel

“Oh,” I realized “that’s Alura in the shower” Astra nodded

“Bagel?” she offered, holding one up

“Sure” I mumbled as I sat down next her

“Kara called a few minutes ago,” she announced “she wants to know if you’re available to meet her for lunch”

“I can do lunch,” I nodded as I heard the shower stop “is she as bad as you in the shower?” I wondered

“No. She’s downright fastidious”

“Good” I nodded  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“So, how’d your first official assignment go?” I asked as Kara and I walked along the water. The water walk in the park is nice this time of year; the air’s not too cold, so all you need is a light jacket

“Good, I already turned in the article, so we’ll see what Ms. Grant says” Kara answered as we stopped at a bench and sat down

“Kara, just spit it out, already,” I ordered “you want to talk to me about the wedding plans”

“How did you…?”

“I’m your sister, I know you, you invited me out to lunch but you haven’t mentioned the word ‘food’ once,” I explained “in fact we passed three food trucks and you didn’t even give them a second glance”

“Promise me that you’ll at least hear me out?” I nodded “OK,” she reached into her bag and dug out that damned binder

“Seriously? Do you just carry that thing around with you?” I wondered as she dropped it on my lap

“Take this home, show it Astra, both of you pick out a dress and the cake, and then let me handle the rest” she ordered

“Yes, sir, General Danvers” I saluted, which made her laugh  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

**Kara**

“Ker-iah!” I cringed at Ms. Grant’s voice, even from one story up, but since I don’t like looking at my empty office, I hurried back down to the bullpen and into Ms. Grant’s office

“Yes, Ms. Grant?” she held up a piece of paper

“What is this?”

“My…article?”

“Hmm, no,” she slipped her glasses on and started to read it “ _while representatives from L-Corp boast that this new ‘alien detection device’ will serve as a safety measure to protect human beings, it is in reality fostering a culture of fear and discrimination against aliens and other minorities_ ,” she looked up at me “rewrite it, now” she ordered

“But, why?” I asked “that thing is bad, I mean, very bad”

“Good or bad is up to the reader to decide,” she explained “your job is simply lay out the facts and present it to them in a easy to understand, _non-biased_ manner, _this,_ ” she held up the paper “is one-sided and pro-alien, and essentially a pro-alien manifesto. Rewrite it. Now”

“Right, I’ll…just…” I mumbled and stammered a bit, grabbed the paper from her, and hurried out of the room  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

**Astra**

“Hello, Lucy” she blinked and looked up at me

“Oh, hi, Astra”

“Are you all right?” I asked “you seem…flustered, is everything all right with your father?”

“Yeah, no, my dad’s fine, thanks for asking, no, it…,” she huffed out in frustration “earlier today, I…may have…said…something to Winn, I may have told him that….I…love him” she admitted 

“Do you?” I asked

“Yes…no…I don’t know!” she threw up her hands in frustration “god! I mean we’re still starting out, everything is still so new”

“I fell in love with Alex from the moment I saw her” I pointed out

“That’s you,” she scoffed “things don’t work like that for us humans” she dismissed

“Perhaps,” I allowed “but, I’ve seen the way you and he look at each other, and it _is_ love, Lucy, perhaps not as passionate as what Alex and I have, perhaps not as all encompassing, but it is love”

“You really think so?” she asked, I nodded

“I know so” I told her

“Director Lane, Agent In-ze,” we both stiffened at J’onn’s voice “working hard I hope?” he asked as he came up to us

“Yes sir” we both chorused, he gave us each a critical stare, clearly not believing either of us for a second

“Good,” he finally said “I’d hate to think that two of my agents were gossiping about their love lives while on duty”

“Of course not, sir” Lucy said, J’onn smirked

“I didn’t think so,” he rumbled, smirking “carry on” he instructed, walking away. As soon as he was out of earshot Lucy turned to me

“He didn’t believe us for a second, did he?” she asked

“Not in the least”

“Damn”


	9. Sisters and Airstrikes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex and Astra have a talk, Winn and Lucy bicker, and Cadmus does more evil things

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, here's Chapter Nine of Part Ten of What we are, I hope everyone enjoys it :=)

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

**Alex**

“Hello, anybody home?” I elbowed the door open and kicked it shut, lugging Kara’s damn binder all the way. I stopped at the sight of Astra scrubbing the floor “oh, no, what happened now?” I groaned

“It’s been a day,” she sighed, scrubbing harder “yourself?” she asked

“I finally let Kara talk me into looking over this damn binder of hers,” I dropped it onto the couch with a sigh of relief “where’s Alura?”

“Out with Lucy and Winn” she stood up and carried the bucket of soapy water over to the sink

“Did something happen?” I asked “with Alura?” I hinted, honestly trying to get information out of Astra is like trying to pull teeth with tweezers, I don’t whether if its just something she was born with or her military training or a self-defense mechanism she developed in Fort Rozz but you can’t outright ask her what’s wrong, you have to hint and let her slowly open up. She dumped the water out of the bucket and sighed

“Alura…she’s changed,” she finally sighed “when we were children we were practically inseparable, we did everything together, now she just wants to spend time with Lucy or Winn. I could understand not wishing to spend time with me, after all things ended badly between us, but she won’t even spend time Kara” I chuckled

“C’mere, sit down,” I gestured to the kitchen island “you know, when Kara first came to live with us, I thought ‘finally I have a sister’,” I began “and I thought that we’d do everything together. So, I took her science fairs, which she found boring, I tried to get her to like the music I liked, which she didn’t”

“Hmm, I’ve heard her taste in music” 

“I know, N’sync is so weird,” I muttered “but, anyway, my point is, you and Alura are two different people and you have changed, both because of Myriad and just because you’re experiencing life on Earth differently, you hid, she doesn’t have to, she can be and do whatever she wants to—within reason of course—here. Just let her explore, find out what she wants to do here with her new life”

“So,” Astra finally sighed “you’re saying that if she wants to spend all her time with Lucy and Winn instead of me, I should just let her?” I nodded

“Exactly, she’s not your clone, she’s your sister,” I chuckled “face it, honey not everybody can pull off black leather like you can” I nodded to my father’s old lucky jacket, which Astra’s taken as her own. She smiled and reached out and took my hand

“Thank you, love”

“No problem,” I replied “now, we should probably look through this damn binder so I can tell Kara the truth when she asks if we looked through it”

“That would be wise” she nodded, but just as we both sat down there was a distant explosion. Looking up I saw what looked like a drone suddenly whiz past the window

“Please tell me that there’s an air show in town I don’t know about” I groaned as a streak of red and blue suddenly shot past after the drone

“I don’t think so” Astra muttered as my phone rang

“Danvers”

“ _Alex,_ ” J’onn began “ _there’s some kind of drone attack happening right now, Supergirl’s already on it, but she could use some help_ ” I looked over at Astra only to see her march out of the bedroom in her Military Guild uniform, Kara wears a skirt and cape, Astra wears her old uniform, she may not be ‘superwoman’ anymore, but she still tries to help where she can

“J’onn, help’s already on the way,” I told him, I put the phone down “be careful” I called out as she opened the window

“Always am, love” she replied  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

**Kara**

I dodged the next drone, taking it out with a blast of heat vision, before I spun around and started chasing after the next one, which was really fast and really agile. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a streak of black

“Need a hand?” Aunt Astra asked as she glided up next to me, grinning at me, I grinned back

“All I can get” I told her, she nodded

“You take this one, I’ll go after the one heading down Shuster” she ordered

“Got it”  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

**Astra**

“J’onn, can anyone tell me what just happened to start all this?” I asked over my comm. as I gave chase to the drone flying down Shuster

“ _Astra, Lucy, listen, about fifteen minutes ago,_ ” she began “ _one of these little bastards just took a shot at the mayor’s helicopter, now Kara saved them but whoever’s controlling it unleashed about a dozen more all over the city_ ”

“I’m assuming that they’re armed then?”

“ _Very much so,_ ” J’onn replied “ _it’d be nice if you could avoid any property damage, _” he added as I finally caught up with the drone, tearing it in half__

“Do these thing fall under that warning?” I wondered, J’onn chuckled

“ _Not at all_ ” he replied

“Good, because the one that was traveling down Shuster Avenue is now in several pieces” I replied

“ _OK, Astra,_ ” Winn called out “ _there’s another one down Grant Street, you just follow Shuster and you’ll be there in a flash_ ” he added

“ _Winn,_ ” Lucy sighed “ _Shuster doesn’t open onto Grant, Becker opens onto to Grant, Shuster opens onto Siegel,_ ” she sighed “ _Astra, take 42nd Street_ ” she instructed

“ _Lucy, I’m telling you it’s Shuster_ ” Winn insisted

“ _And I’m telling_ you _that’s it 42nd Street_ ” she retorted

“And I’m telling _both_ of you that these directions are meaningless!” I snapped “I don’t have to worry about cross streets when I can _fly_ ” I reminded them

“ _Oh, yeah,_ ” Winn mumbled “ _right, sorry_ ”

“Idiots,” I muttered as I ducked under the drone on Grant Street, tearing out its battery pack as I did and them catching it before it fell “OK, the one on Grant is down, are there any more?”

“ _Negitive,_ ” J’onn replied “ _Supergirl just took out the last one_ ” he added

“That’s a relief,” I muttered, I glanced down at the drone in my hands “tell Winn I have a present for him” I added as I took off down Grant Street, which, incidentally did open up onto Shuster

Not that I’d tell Lucy or Winn that  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 

“Hmm, yeah, this thing is definitely not your average drone,” Winn began as he examined the drone I’d brought in while the rest of us crowded around the opperations table to examine it “this actually looks more like something my father might’ve made in one his more, you know, ‘murder-y’ moments” he added

“I hate to ask, Winn…” Kara began, he shook his head

“No, it’s not him,” he replied “we checked, he’s still in solitary confinement” he explained, a brief look of sadness coming over his face, I had to smile as I saw Lucy, who obviously didn’t even realize she was doing it, reach out and take his hand, squeezing affectionately

“But there is someone who isn’t in solitary,” Alex began as she came over, unknowing ruining Lucy and Winn’s moment “turns out John Corbin never made it to that military hospital in Nevada” she announced

“What?” I demanded, she nodded “that doesn’t make sense, we’ve been receiving updates on his condition from his doctor” I pointed out

“Turns out that doctor doesn’t even exist” she explained

“Cadmus” I realized, she nodded

“Looks that way”

“But, hang on,” Kara began “why would Cadmus kidnap him?” she wondered “wouldn’t it make more sense to make sure he’s dead? That way he can’t tell us anything about him”

“For all we know, he is dead,” J’onn pointed out “and they’re just ensuring we’ll never find his body”

“We should be so lucky” I muttered

“Wouldn’t we though,” J’onn remarked, he looked between us and sighed “all right, it’s late, why don’t all of you go home, get some rest,” he advised, the rest of us began to protest, arguing over one another all at once “I can make it an order, people,” he warned, we quieted “that’s better,” he nodded “now all of you go home, we found a partial fingerprint on the drone’s casing, we’re call you if we find a match” he advised, we all reluctantly broke up and then paired up, Lucy and Winn in one direction, Kara and Alura—who’d been relegated to standing in a corner and watching all of us---and Alex and myself

“Hey, guys,” Kara approached us “uh, Mom wants to stay with me and James for the night, that OK?”

“Sure,” Alex nodded “just call us when you guys get there” she said

“OK, cool” Kara grinned and hurried back over to Alura, I frowned as I watched them leave

“Let her be” Alex reminded me, I nodded, as much as it hurt, I knew that this was good for her in the long term


	10. Metallo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some fun with Major Nerd and General Danvers, then Metallo spoils the party

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Double update!

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Snow White’s stitching up the circuit boards  
Synapse slipping through the hidden door  
Snow White’s stitching up the circuit boards  
Synapse slipping through the hidden door

\--Florence + the Machine: “Blinding”  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

**Alex**

“Knock-knock” I looked up at Astra, who—as usual—had her head buried in a book

“What?”

“Knock-knock” she repeated, nose still buried in the book

“Uh, who’s there?”

“Broken pencil”

“O…K, I know I’m going to regret this, but, broken pencil who?”

“Never mind, this joke is pointless” she promptly burst out into a fit of giggles, I had to laugh back, more at her antics than that corny joke

“You’re in a playful mood,” I commented “what’s up?” she looked up from the book and shrugged

“I just…feel playful,” she admitted, as there was an _actual_ knock at the door “it’s Lucy and Winn” Astra announced, I got up off the couch and let them

“Hey guys” Winn said, waving at Astra

“Hey,” I replied “what brings you by?”

“Well,” Lucy began “in honor of my father actually _liking_ Winn, I thought we’d invite you two out for a double date”

“That _is_ cause for celebration” Astra noted, Winn nodded, looking a little shell-shocked

“I know he actually called me, and I quote: ‘a nice, well-mannered young man’.”

“I still say it was the morphine talking,” Lucy added, she shrugged “but, hey, I’ll take it,” she glanced between us “so? Double date?” she asked “unless you two are busy sitting around on you butts”

“We are not ‘sitting around on our butts’,” Astra explained “we are ‘lounging’ around on our butts” I snorted

“Where would we go?” I wondered

“Wherever you guys want, our treat” Lucy explained, while Winn raided my cupboards for snacks

“Astra’s eaten all the snacks, Winn, sorry,” I told him, I glanced back at Astra “do you want to go?”

“I could eat,” she said, standing up “let me get changed” there was a woosh of air and she disappeared and then reappeared in a comfy pair of jeans and a t-shirt in about half a second

“You know, I really am jealous of that” I muttered as I headed to the bedroom to get changed  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Since Astra and I couldn’t decide where to go, we had Lucy and Winn pick, and ended up going to this little tacqieria that Winn knew. It was small, practically a hole in the wall, wasn’t particularly clean (not that it was filthy, but it wasn’t spotless. Unlike my kitchen whenever Astra’s upset) and sat about twelve people 

“This is pretty cool, Winn,” I admitted, it reminded me of the places I used to frequent back in collage, the little all-night places that catered to starving students who needed to eat between cram sessions “how’d you find this place anyway?” I wondered

“Honestly, I got lost and wandered in asking for directions,” he answered as we all sat down “they have the best tacos in the city, I swear”

“I’ll believe that when I see it,” I told him “so, I got to ask you two, why the double date?”

“Honestly?” Lucy asked, when Astra and I both nodded, she sighed “we need couple friends”

“What about Kara and James?” Astra suggested “surely they would amenable to this?”

“Sure,” Winn agreed “but, still, we need to branch out, and since we just don’t know Detective Sawyer that well…”

“Oh, I see, so we’re your ‘second’ choice is that?” Astra teased, Lucy threw a napkin at her head

“Geez, Danvers, your girlfriend’s got great manners” she muttered

“Fiancée,” I reminded her “and yeah, her terrible manners save me from having to go through the trouble of insulting people myself”

“Oh my god” Winn exclaimed, he pointed behind us to the big screen TV against one wall. A new bullet was on, a man was standing on the ledge of the Otto Binder Bridge, clearly planning on jumping, as a familiar figure with blonde hair in a red cape landed on the bridge and began to slowly walk towards the jumper

“Something’s wrong” Astra muttered, almost as soon as she said that, the jumper turned to face Kara, spread his arms, and fired a blast of bright green energy at her, knocking her back in a parked car. There was a gust wind to my right and I didn’t need to bother looking to know that Astra was gone….  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

**Astra**

I flew quickly, almost at the speed of sound. Arriving at the bridge, I slowed, despite my every instinct screaming at me to go help Kara, and took stock. NCPD were scrambling to evacuate as Kara staggered to her feet and fired off a blast of heat vision at her assailant, he threw out a hand, easily catching the blast, seeming unconcerned even as his hand burst into flames, as he fired off another blast, which Kara sprawling back on the ground again.

I saw my opening in charged, slamming into him, and knocking him off balance. I could feel the change in the air as I did, a familiar icy burn, an itching sensation crawling along my skin

Kryptonite

I placed myself between Kara and the attacker as he got his feet, I felt my blood go cold as I recognized him

“John Corbin” I whispered, he smirked at me, holding up his hand, the same that Kara had burned with heat vision, the skin had been completely burned off, leaving a metallic skeleton glinting in the lights from the helicopters above

“No,” he stated “Metallo” he threw his arms out, a blast of almost-pure kryptonite energy rippling out from his chest to strike me in the arm. I gasped as hit the ground, groaning at the icy numbness radiating up and down my arm, I could see a familiar green glow under his shirt, in the center of his chest. I remained on the ground as he approached, waiting until he was almost on top of my before I surged to my feet, striking him across the jaw with my fist, sending him tumbling back over the ledge and into the water below. I waited for a few minutes, and when he didn’t reappear, judged it safe enough to check on Kara, finding her limp and semi-conscious

“Easy, little one” I whispered as I gently scooped her up and took flight  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“J’onn!” I called out as I landed in the DEO, supporting Kara with one arm

“We saw,” he said as he approached, Lucy, Winn, and Alex all gathered around him “get Supergirl down to the medical bay now” he ordered

“I’m fine,” Kara dismissed with a slight slur in her words “I’m jush a little dizzy”

“Go!” I ordered, scowling at me, she reluctantly trudged off with Alex and two medics

“Astra?” I looked over to see James and Alura standing to one side, I hurried over to them

“She’s all right” I assured them as I gripped Alura’s arm

“And what about you?” she asked

“I’m furious, but I’m all right” I told her

“Astra,” J’onn questioned softly, I turned “what can you tell us?” he asked

“It was John Corbin” I explained

“Are you sure?” Lucy asked, I nodded

“He’s been…enhanced,” I explained “probably in a fashion similar to what happened to Hank Henshaw. He calls himself ‘metallo’ now”

“Damn it,” J’onn swore “well, at least now we know where he went” he muttered

“There’s more to it than just his disappearance,” I explained “he seems to be able to fire discharges of kryptonite radiation at a target. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if the kryptonite is being used to power his enhancements”

“Now that changes things” J’onn muttered

“Winn,” Lucy began “can you---”

“…track him through the kryptonite?” Winn finished, he shook his head “already tried, no dice, Cadmus must found a way to shield the stuff” he explained

“There might be a way,” I realized “whatever metal that Cadmus used to enhance him is obviously very durable, Kara hit his hand at almost point-blank range with heat vision, it barely slowed him down,” I held up my hand “when I punched him traces of that metal might have been left behind on my hand” I explained

“By the time we analyze the metal traces, if there are any, he could be half way across the planet” J’onn pointed out, I chuckled

“Maybe not,” I began “do Martians like the cold?”


	11. Prometheus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Astra and J'onn have a talk, Cadmus pulls an ace out of its sleeve

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Triple update!!

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

**Astra**

J’onn was silent during the flight to Clark’s Fortress of Solitude. Not that was particularly unusual, in fact that’s one of the things I like about him, he doesn’t have this need to fill the silence with needless small talk, but this time was different, and I was under the impression that he was silent not because he just didn’t have anything to say but more because he was too preoccupied to say anything

“Impressive,” he commented as we landed, the first word he spoke since we’d left the DEO. He nodded up at the two statues of Jor-El and Lara towering above us “his parents?” I nodded, surprised when he bowed his head and quietly recited a prayer for the dead in fluent Kryptonese

“I didn’t know you spoke Kryptonese” I commented, he smirked at me

“Why wouldn’t I?” he shrugged

“So, what’s on your mind?” I asked as we made our way through the cavernous space “you don’t need to be a telepath to know that’s something’s bothering you, J’onn” I added

“You were right,” he finally sighed “you both were, you and Kal-El, about how kryptonite could be used against Kara”

“You couldn’t have predicted that Cadmus would steal a shipment” I pointed out

“I should have,” he snarled “I should have been prepared”

“Why?” I challenged “why does that responsibility fall to _you_ and only you, J’onn J’onzz?”

“Because Mars is a crypt,” he hissed “because I’m all that’s left. Because I vowed that I would _never_ be caught defenseless again, that I would never lose my family again” I sighed as I turned to face him

“You are not responsible for this planet, J’onn,” I began “no one is, not me, not Kara, not Kal-El. All we can do is try our best to protect it. We will make mistakes, but what matters most is that we _try_ , is that we _fight_ , not just hide away, hording some weapon like a precious jewel, constantly living in fear of attack” he smirked at me

“Not very subtle”

“Would you rather I simply come out and say that you were an idiot to keep hording kryptonite and acting as if the end of days was coming any second?” I commented, a hum broke me out of my thoughts

“ _Greetings, General In-ze,_ ” Kelex greeted as it floated over “ _how may I be of assistance?_ ”

“Hello, Kelex,” I held out my hand “scan for any traces of metal or metallic substances” I instructed, Kelex swiftly scanned my hand

“ _Scans show trace amounts of the element known as ‘promethium’,_ ” it announced “ _the hardest metal know to this world_ ”

“Promethium?” J’onn echoed “now that’s interesting”

“Isn’t promethium also slightly radioactive?” I wondered, he nodded

“Yes it is” he confirmed  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“OK, got a big promethium signature down by the docks” Winn announced, to my right, a freshly recovered Kara grinned at me

“Let’s go”  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“I was wondering when you’d show up” John Corbin commented as we landed in front of him, he was unloading a truck, easy lifting out large crates, and seeming totally unconcerned with our presence

“Take more step and we _will_ incinerate you” I warned as he stopped his work and turned to face us

“Oh, no, you see, I’m glad that you’re here,” he explained, smirking “because if you’re here than it means that there’s no one around to help him”

“Him?” Kara echoed, I gasped as the pieces suddenly fell into place

“Metropolis” I realized, Kara gasped as she came to the same conclusion I had. She glowered at Corbin

“We’ll be back” she warned as she took off after me  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

**Krypton Park, Metropolis**

Metropolis’ Krypton Park was built around ten years after Clark revealed himself to the world, it had been built to both honor Superman as well as revitalize an otherwise rundown and decrepit part of the city. The park was a wide open plaza, the centerpiece being a small stone monument, capped by a sculpture of the Crest of El and the worlds ‘OUR SAVIOR’ on the pedestal

By the time Kara and I arrived, that monument was the only thing left standing in the entire area

“Oh my god” Kara whispered as we softly landed, the devastation covered a majority of the park and the surrounding area, several buildings had clearly been damaged in a fight or other battle

“Kara” I froze at the sight of a figure in a red cape slumped over a piece of rubble

“ _Astra, report_ ” J’onn asked over my comm.

“We’re in Metropolis,” I announced as Kara hurried over to Clark and struggled to turn him over “Superman is down,” I reported “I repeat, Superman is down”


	12. Divide and Conquer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Superman recovers from the second Mettalo attack, Astra meets Martha Kent, and realizes what Cadmus is planning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Here's another update to Part Ten of What we are, enjoy :=)

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Oh the river, oh the river, it’s running free  
And all the joy, all the joy it brings to me  
But I know it’ll have to drown me  
Before it can breathe easy

\--Florence + the Machine: “Heartlines”  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

**Astra**

**DEO field office, Metropolis**

The medical wing of the DEO’s Metropolis field office was virtually identical to that at its headquarters back in California; it had the same basic layout and the same sharp, antiseptic sting in the air, and a set of sunbeds. Presently, Clark Kent, better known to this world as ‘Superman’ lay on one of those beds, his frighteningly pale skin was starting to regain it’s complexion and even unconscious he was beginning to look stronger

“Agent In-ze, Supergirl,” Kara and I both turned at the voice, acknowledging a middle-aged African-American woman who had approached us. She gave us each a tight smile “I’m Dr. Amanda Waller,” she introduced herself “head of the Metropolis branch of the DEO,” she held out her hand “I’m sorry we all couldn’t meet under more positive circumstances” she continued as we shook hands

“How is he?” Kara asked

“Better,” Dr. Waller answered “according to our doctors his body’s absorbing the artificial sunlight quite nicely,” she explained “he probably should be awake and up and about in a few hours,” she predicted “in the meantime, Director J’onzz has asked me to pass on some information to you both,” she pulled out a tablet computer from under her arm “according to an agent…Schott, the anti-kryptonite technology that you developed, General can be repaired”

“Good” I sighed

“I thought that was destroyed?” Kara wondered “I mean Hank Henshaw crushed it like an egg” she add, I shook my head

“Henshaw only destroyed the outer casing, the actual device itself was unharmed,” I explained, I looked up at Dr. Waller “is there anything else?” I asked, she shook her head

“Not unless you’d like to see the security camera footage of the fight” I nodded

“Please, there might be something of value there” she shrugged, pulling up the footage on her tablet and holding it out to us

“Not much to look at” she remarked, on the screen we could see the park bustling with activity, a slowly man walked into the center of the plaza, opened his shirt, and let out a blast of kryptonite energy

“Oh my god,” Kara murmured as Superman swiftly landed in front of the attacker and began to fight him, quickly losing “turn it off” Kara groaned, turning away at the sight of the attacker pinning Clark to the ground and discharging a blast directly at his chest at near point-blank range, you could hear Clark’s agonized screams clear as day

“I’m amazed he survived that” I remarked, Dr. Waller shrugged

“I’m surprised you survived being injected with liquid kryptonite,” she commented “yet here we are,” she paused and lifted a hand to her comm. “understood, the Director wants me to ask you that, if you don’t anything further, to report back to base” she announced, I turned to Kara, who shook her head, still grimacing

“Thank you, doctor” I said, shaking her head again, she nodded

“Of course”  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Kara was silent during the flight back from Metropolis, not that I blamed her, her mission on Earth had been to protect Kal-El, and even though by the time she had arrived he no longer needed to protect him she still saw him as the infant he’d been when she left Krypton

“I used to change his diapers,” she said suddenly as we passed over Topeka, Kansas “Kal-El’s” she explained, I nodded

“I know,” I said “but he’s not a child anymore, Kara, he can take care of himself, he’s been doing quite fine on his own for the past twenty-four years” I reminded her, she nodded

“Hang on,” she banked right, gliding down “I need to make a stop” frowning I followed her, both of us gliding over a small community called (if the name printed on the water tower in the center of the community was any indication) ‘Smallville’. Kara continued on past the town, passing over fields of corn, before finally landing on the grass outside a farmhouse

“Hmm, reminds me of my childhood home” I muttered, reminded of the agricultural community Alura and I had been raised in on Krypton

“Oh, right,” Kara said “I keep forgetting that you and Mom are farm girls” she chuckled slightly

“Don’t laugh, Kara,” I warned “no farmers means no crops, which means no food,” I frowned at our surroundings “now, why are we here?” I asked, she sighed as we stepped onto the porch and she raised a hand and knocked

“I need to tell his parents” she explained as the door opened…  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Martha Kent was a very impressive woman, and very difficult to say no to. Despite my protests I somehow found myself in a worn, comforting kitchen eating a slice of pumpkin pie while she and Kara talked, I found it strange that it was Mrs. Kent, the woman who was the only mother that Clark ever knew, was the one consoling Kara over Clark’s injuries rather than the other way around. They spoke quietly off in a corner while I nibbled on my pie and examined the furnishings.

There were dozens of photographs, more than enough I knew to make James Olsen green with envy, pictures of Clark as an infant, clearly not much older than he had been when he left Krypton, to other ones of him as a young man, I was studying one of the three of them when I felt a presence behind me. Turning, I found Mrs. Kent standing behind me. She was by no means tall, her hair—which if the photos were any indication—had long since lost its red hue, having since turned silver, but it was her eyes that struck me, they were kind eyes, the eyes of someone who would take in an alien child simply because they saw an infant in distress and not an alien

“That one’s my favorite,” she nodded to the picture I’d been staring at “all three of us, together, as a family” she explained, her voice was strong, firm, confident, and I had no doubts that she could easily reduce me to about a foot tall with just her voice if so desired

“It’s a nice picture” I offered, she nodded

“I know that Smallville must be a far cry from Krypton,” she began “so, I hope you won’t think any less of us” I shook my head

“On the contrary, I was raised in an environment similar to this,” I explained “I’m quite at home on a farm” I added, she chuckled

“You know, he told me about you,” she began “he said that you were a leader, a general, a war hero by all accounts, until something went wrong and you were sent to jail”

“Something like that” I dismissed, I don’t like to talk about my past, she nodded, seeming to sense that

“You know, the first time he did something ‘super’ his father and I were scared,” she admitted “not that we didn’t love him any less, but it was rather startling to see your toddle rips a table leg off like a toothpick because he wanted some more carrots,” she chuckled “and when he decided to come out to the world, to become Superman that scared us too, because people could know he could do, people who would be so scared that they would try to do anything in their power to stop him, people like this ‘Cadmus’ Kara mentioned”

“They see us, all aliens, as a threat” I explained, she nodded

“I’m sorry to hear that” she said sincerely. As she turned back to the kitchen and her baking I ruminated on her words, people who would be so scared that they would do anything to try and stop him. I almost dropped my plate when I realized what was going on, what exactly Cadmus was doing  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Divide and conquer?” Alex asked as we crowded around the operations table back at DEO headquarters

“It’s the only thing that makes sense,” I explained “why else would they so brazenly attack Superman? The answer is because they’re trying to create fear, they’re hoping that Kara will so scared of an attack here, in National City, that she or us won’t bother to try and stop them, that we’ll be so busy bracing for an attack---”

“…that we won’t notice what _else_ they’re doing” Alex finished, I nodded

“So, what do we do instead?” Lucy asked

“The same as we did with Henshaw,” I announced “we fight back”

“We can’t just go after them like we did against the Fort Rozz escapees,” J’onn pointed out “we don’t even know who their leader is”

“Actually,” Winn held up a hand “I think I can answer that one at least, we finally got a match on that partial fingerprint on the drone,” he tapped a few keys and pulled up an image “look familiar?” he asked

“That’s her” Alex snarled as the image of Cadmus’ possible leader—and the woman who had me shot—appeared on the screen

“Meet Lillian Luthor,” Winn introduced “otherwise known as Lex Luthor’s _mother_ ”

“Oh, great, that’s just what we need,” Lucy complained “the mother of the world’s most infamous anti-alien leading a terrorist organization dedicated to eradicating all aliens on Earth”

“Makes sense though,” Kara nodded with a shrug “I mean Lex had to get that venom from somewhere” she pointed out

“So, what’s your plan, General?” J’onn asked

“Cadmus’ whole plan hinges on the belief that, once again, humans and aliens can’t work together,” I explained “not only that but also on the belief that even aliens can’t work with other aliens, that Superman and Kara will be so wrapped up in defending their own territory that they won’t come to the aid of the other”

“Geez, Aunt Astra, you make us sound like dogs fighting over a fire hydrant” Kara muttered

“As insulting as that may sound, Kara, that is exactly what Cadmus thinks, to them we are no better than animals” I pointed out

“So, what’s the plan?” Alex asked, I shook my head

“Oh, no, I’m not leading the battle charge here, love, you are” she stared at me

“What?” she demanded, I nodded

“They’ll be expecting me to lead us into battle,” I pointed out “do you remember back at the warehouse? Lillian Luthor barely gave you a second look, because she _underestimates_ you, she probably sees you the same way that Faora saw you, as my pet or plaything, she thinks that you’re so blinded by love that you can’t possibly see how evil I really am, and _that_ gives us the advantage, because they’ll be expecting a counterattack from an alien, not from a human, not from a ‘sympathizer’.”

“All right,” J’onn nodded “Alex get to work on a plan of attack, Lucy help her out with that, agent Schott, see if you can get Astra’s kryptonite inhibitor back in working order, Astra? Talk to your sister” I frowned and looked back over my shoulder, spotting Alura standing a few feet away


	13. Tale of Two Cities, Part One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alura finally loses it over the loss of Krypton and Astra faces off against one of the Metallos

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Here's another update to Part Ten of What we are, we are almost at the end here, enjoy

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Seems that I have been held in some dreaming state  
A tourist in the waking world, never quite awake  
No kiss, no gentle word, could wake me from this slumber  
‘till I realized that it was you who held me under

Felt it in my fists, in my feet, in the hollows of my eyelids  
Shaking through my skull, though my spine and down through my ribs

\--Florence + and the Machine: “Blinding”  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

**Astra**

“No!” I repeated as Alura followed me down the corridor

“Astra, _please!_ ” she pleaded

“You are not a soldier! I am _not_ teaching you how to fight!” I snarled “I will not lose you again!” I vowed

“I didn’t _ask_ for this!” she suddenly snarled, I froze “I didn’t ask to _live!_ To survive!” she continued “I didn’t ask to wake up and find that _more than ten years_ had passed, to find my daughter was a grown woman, to feel such agonizing _guilt_ every time I look at you both,” I turned to face her, watching as she began to tremble “that pod wasn’t meant for me,” she whispered, so softly that even with my enhanced hearing I struggled to catch it “it was meant for Lara…,” she continued “after what I did to you, to Kara, what I did to you _using_ Kara, I was…content to die with Zor-El, with the rest of Krypton,” she took a shuddering breath “but…at the last moment, in that launch bay, after we’d launched Kara’s pod, Lara, she grabbed my hand, pulled me over to another pod, told me to get inside, told me that I needed to live, for Kara, for _you_ ,” she began to tremble harder “Lara is the one who was meant to be here, not me” she whispered as she sank against the wall, quietly sobbing

“Alura, look at me,” I implored as I slowly approached her “look at me,” I repeated “there is no shame in survival,” I told her when she finally looked up “there is no shame in having lived. Do you think that I felt anger and hate when I saw you lying there in that pod? No, I felt _joy_ , joy because no matter what had happened between us in the past, we were together again”

“Why?” she asked as I crouched down next to her

“Because you’re my sister,” I whispered, I held out a hand, silently imploring her to take it, which she did, with barely any hesitation “I won’t teach you how to fight,” I vowed as I helped her to her feet “but, I can find you something do” she nodded

“Please,” she requested “I want, I _need_ , to feel…useful” I nodded

“All right…”  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Helping Winn organize tools?” J’onn asked, I shrugged as we both watched Alura help Winn reactive my kryptonite inhibitor through the glass walls of his lab

“It gives her something do,” I explained “makes her feel like she has worth and value again”

“Guess I never thought about that,” he admitted, grimacing “better than what I did when I first came here” he muttered

“And what did you do when you first came here?” I wondered, not at all expecting an answer, he smirked at me

“That’s for me to know and for you to never find out, Agent In-ze” he teased

“OK,” Alex sighed as she came up to us, a crumpled paper clutched in her hand “what do you think?” she held it out to me, I scanned her battle plan

“Terrible,” I declared “this plan is extremely convoluted and infeasible. Come now, Alex, you can do much better than this” I sighed

“I know I can,” she replied, a smirk on her face “that’s _Lucy's_ plan” she explained

“Oh,” I blinked “well, I suppose its fortunate that she didn’t have to fight Siobhan Smythe for Winn’s affections”

“I sincerely hope that you have a better plan than this, Agent Danvers” J’onn rumbled as he examined the paper

Alex grinned  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 

**Krypton Park, Metropolis**

“ _Everybody in position?_ ” Alex asked over the comm..

“Ready” I replied, as I climbed up on top of the monument in Metropolis’ Krypton Park

“ _Supergirl?_ ” Alex asked

“ _Ready_ ” Kara replied

“ _OK, now all that’s left is to wait for them to show up_ ” Alex declared, almost as soon as she finished speaking one of the two Metallos appeared, the same one that had attacked Superman. He paused at the sight of me

“Good afternoon,” I greeted “I don’t suppose you’d be willing to surrender?” I wondered, in response he fired off a blast of kryptonite energy at me, my newly-rebuilt inhibitor easily neutralizing the radiation, even though the force of the blast knocked me off my feet “thought not” I muttered as I got back up and charged for him, swinging out my arm to strike him across the face, knocking him into one of the remaining concrete walls, shattering it. He staggered to his feet, charging forward towards me, hitting me hard across the face before grabbing a fistful of my hair

“You know,” a male voice began suddenly from behind him “my mother always told me to never hit a lady,” Mettalo dropped me and spun around to face a rejuvenated Superman, once again firing off another blast of kryptonite “thank you, Winn” Clark muttered as he glanced down at the blast hitting him in the chest, smirking in satisfaction as his modified suit—which like Kara’s was indistinguishable from the original—easily neutralized the radiation

“You didn’t honestly think that we wouldn’t _share_ that technology, now did you?” I wondered as Metallo staggered back, unsure of what to do as Clark approached him, delivering a hard punch across his jaw, sending him to his knees, I quickly jumped on top of him, wrapping one arm around his neck to hold him still while, with my other hand, I tore the kryptonite ‘heart’ out of his chest. He jerked and spasmed in my grip before going limp, collapsing to the ground clearly injured, but alive

“That’s one down,” Clark muttered as he helped me up “now what about the other one?”

“ _Astra, report_ ” Alex demanded

“Operation was a success,” I reported “the other Metallo has been neutralized, what about you?”

“ _Corbin just showed up_ she announced

“We’re on our way” I replied, glancing back as a trio of unmarked, DEO SUVs pulled up and a small army of heavily armed agents emerged, swiftly surrounding Metallo and taking him into custody

“Nicely done” Dr. Amanda Waller congratulated us as she approached

“Thank you, doctor,” Clark thanked her “sorry we can’t stay” he added as we took off for National City…


	14. Tale of Two Cities, Part Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The final battle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Chapter Fourteen of Part Ten of What we are, only one more to go! Enjoy

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

And I’ve seen in the flights of birds  
I’ve seen it in you  
The entrails of the animals  
The blood running through

But in order to get to the heart  
I think sometimes you have to cut through  
But you can  
You can  
You can

\--Florence + the Machine: “Heartlines”  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

**Alex**

I took a breath as I watched John Corbin climb out of the truck. He’d driven to one of the more busy parts of the city, near a coffee shop and a park, with a crowded parking garage nearby. I wasn’t sure I _wanted_ to know what was in the truck but I was betting it wasn’t good. Corbin frowned at the sight of me

“Where’s the cheerleader?” he wondered

“She’ll be here” I told him, shifting under the weight of my nifty battle suit courtesy of Hank Henshaw, Corbin smirked

“Too bad she’ll be here too late to save you” he sneered, a green glow lit from under his shirt, the fabric smoking and quickly burning away to reveal a large, oval-shaped piece of kryptonite set into some kind of metal housing embedded into his chest

“Supergirl’s not the one you need to worry about,” I told him, he stopped, frowning as I pointed up “incoming” there was a woosh and Astra suddenly landed directly _on top of him_ , pile driving him into the pavement, shattering the asphalt. She quickly reached down and hauled him up, grabbing him by the back of his neck

“Hello, John” she purred, he let out a snarl and fired off a blast of kryptonite, the blast knocking her away. I charged, slamming my fist into his midsection, causing him to double over. There was a distant crash and I jumped back as a _car_ suddenly came flying off the top of the parking garage, slamming into Corbin with a crash and a shower of sparks as people nearby panicked and scattered

“Told you I’d be back” Kara said as she landed next to me, Corbin laughed as he staggered to his feet

“You think that I’d come here unprepared?” he grinned “no, I brought my wits,” he hissed, a bit of what looked like blood, only with more of silvery color, dribbled out of the corner of his mouth “I’ve planted several crates around the city,” he explained “each one filled with enough plastic explosive to level four blocks,” he grinned, triumphantly at Kara “you can stop me or you can stop the bombs,: h explained “your choice, _alien_ ” he sneered

Kara grinned

“When you say crates,” she began “do you mean ones like _that one_?” she pointed down at his feet, Corbin looked down, staring at the large crate sitting at his feet

“See, we tracked your movements thanks to the radiation from the promethium in you skeleton,” I explained “all we had to do then was find something out of place, like say a box that shouldn’t be there, that was contaminated with promethium radiation and then disarm it,” I explained “oh by the way, on your left” Corbin turned, just in time to see Astra’s fist connecting with his face, sending him crashing straight _through_ his truck, only for Superman to swiftly catch him and knock him back, sending Corbin into a sprawl again.

“Thought they’d killed you already” he snarled, glaring at Clark as Clark landed next to ne, opposite Kara, both of them flanking me while Astra floated behind me

“Almost,” Clark acknowledged, he tossed another, identical piece of kryptonite towards Corbin “found this on your friend in Metropolis” he added, I could see the doubt in Corbin’s eyes he slowly examined each of us as he struggled to get to his feet again

“Four against one, hardly fair now, is it?” he snarled 

“Five” Astra said simply, she nodded to the left. Corbin turned, frowning as a little girl, no older than say five or six began sprinting towards him, as she did a familiar fiery haze surrounded her, changing her

“ ** _Stronger together!!_** ” J’onn roared as he slammed into Corbin, knocking him back. As Corbin went airborne, Astra charged, smashing her fist into his back, sending him forward towards Kara and Clark who both quickly batted him back, like he was a giant human tennis ball. With a grunt Corbin slammed into the pavement, groaning as Astra landed next him

"Do you yield?" she asked

“Let me live and I’ll tell you everything I know about Cadmus” he groaned as the rest of us approached him. Astra shook her head 

“Somehow,” she began “I don’t think you will,” there was a sudden hiss, the kryptonite heart in Corbin’s chest suddenly started glowing, letting out a buzzing sound that got louder and faster as the glow got brighter. Corbin staggered to his feet, staring down at his chest, a growing look of horror on his face “back, back!” Astra ordered

“Oh god” Kara whispered

“Come on!” I grabbed her arm “EVEYBODY TAKE COVER!!!!”I yelled, just as John Corbin exploded in a flash of green fire, the explosion shattered windows all along the block and set fire to at least three cars before finally dying down “everybody OK?” I hollered

“Yeah,” Kara coughed to my left “aunt Astra?” she wondered

“Here,” Astra groaned, I squinted through the smoke and haze and finally spotted her under Clark, Clark having obviously having thrown himself over her to shield her from the blast. She pushed at his chest “get off me, you’re not my type” she grumbled

“Sorry” Clark apologized as he stood up, helping her up “where’s J’onn?” he wondered

“ ** _Right here,_** ” we looked down, watching as J’onn slowly rose out of the ground, shifting back into Hank’s form as he did “just got a call from Lucy, the other Metallo in Metropolis also just detonated, fortunately Dr. Waller and her team had already gotten her into a containment unit, so nobody was hurt thankfully” he explained

“Alex,” Astra began “not that I'm all that surprised, but how did you know that Cadmus would rig both of them as suicide bombers?”

“I didn’t,” I answered “but it made sense, the only other reason that Cadmus would use mercenaries is because they’re expendable” I explained

“Well, it was good thinking either way,” Clark said “same with evacuating all public areas,” he added, he frowned “I should go, see what I can do back home” he said

“Before you do,” J’onn began “there is something I’d like to do first…”


	15. Heartlines

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Double update! The final chapter! Enjoy! And look out for Part Eleven :=)

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Just keep following the heartlines on your hand  
Just keep following the heartlines on your hand  
Keep it up, I know you can  
Just keep following the heartlines on your hand  
‘Cause I am

\--Florence + the Machine: “Heartlines”  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

**Alex**

“ _In a shocking display today, Supergirl and Superman teamed up to defeat a criminal along Shuster today, the two heroes possibly saved countless lives before the suspect appeared to commit suicide. Superman and Supergirl were joined by the mysterious ‘superwoman’ and a third, as yet, unidentified alien. The suspect has been identified by the Department of Defense as ‘John Corbin’, a noted mercenary who, it appears, had ties to the recent anti-alien terrorist group known as ‘Cadmus’…_ ”

“You know, I always thought he’d be taller” I turned away from the news report to look at Lucy

“Who would?” I asked, she nodded at Clark who was talking with Kara and Alura. I shrugged

“People aren’t always what we expect them to be” I reminded her

“I know, it’s just, you hear the way Lois used to talk about Superman, she made him seem larger than life,” she explained “of course, now that I know he’s actually my sister’s dorky boyfriend kind of takes the romance out of it” she added, I chuckled turned to Astra

“Do you have any idea what J’onn’s doing?” I asked, she shrugged

“Your guess is as good as mine” she muttered as J’onn came back in, wheeling a large pallet in front of him. Clark straightened up

“Here you go, Superman,” J’onn began, he tapped the crate on the pallet “every last piece of kryptonite on earth,” he announced “I trust you’ll know what to do with it”

“But it’s _not_ every last piece,” I pointed out “Cadmus still has at least half a kilo’s worth” I explained

“True,” J’onn nodded “but, with the new modifications that agent Schott made to both Supergirl and Superman’s suits I don’t think we have to worry too much about that”

“Thank you, J’onn,” Clark said, shaking his hand, he turned and shook Astra’s hand “you too, Astra”

“Of course” she replied

“And congratulations on the engagement” he added as he shook hands me and then Winn, stiffening as Winn suddenly _hugged_ him. I glanced over at a groan from Lucy

“He’s your boyfriend” I reminded her as Clark stood still, clearly not sure what to do with his arms

“I know,” Lucy sighed, clearly embarrassed as she gently pried Winn off Clark “come on, that’s it”

“Right,” Winn turned about twenty different shades of red as he backed away from Clark “sorry…I was just…” he trailed off, blushing and stared down at his shoes

“No, sure it’s all right,” Clark nodded, also clearly uncomfortable, as he turned to Alura, bowing to her as Kryptonian custom. She smiled and returned the bow “maybe we should all get together some time,” he suggested “you know, without murderous the cyborgs” he added

“Sure” I agreed as he shook hands with Lucy

“What is it they say on Krypton?” he wondered “ _kaoshuh?_ ”

“ _Kaoshuh_ ” Astra nodded, her accent impeccable, certainly better than his

“What does that mean?” Winn wondered

“There’s no direct translation in English,” Astra explained “but, loosely translated, it means…’to be continued’.” Clark grinned at us, just before he grabbed the pallet in one hand and took off…  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

**Kara**

“All right people, it’s late! Everybody who hasn’t turned in their articles yet had better do so now!” Ms. Grant hollered out as I frantically finished the last few lines on my revised article on James’ computer

“Kara…” he warned 

“Almost done, almost done…and, come on, print, print! Yes!” I grabbed the last of the two pages and ran into Ms. Grant’s office “Ms. Grant!” she looked up at me, peering over the tops of her glasses

“Oh, Ker-iah, done already? Hmm, I guess that whole ‘faster-than-a-speeding-bullet’ thing comes in handy,” she held out her hand for the pages, which I handed to her, waiting as she carefully read them “not bad,” she finally said “not bad at all, especially for a novice,” she nodded to herself “yes, we can print this in tomorrow’s issue,” I started breathing again as she waved a hand at me “you can go now”

“Thank you, Ms. Grant” I gasped out, hurrying out the door and back into the bullpen

“And?” James asked “what’d she say?”

“She said ‘not bad’!” I squealed “she’s going to print it!!”

“Kara! That’s great!” he pulled me into a hug “I’m proud of you!”

“OH!” I pulled back “we’ve got to tell Alex and Astra”  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

**Alex**

“So, I still don’t get it,” I began as I took a swig of my ginger beer “you seriously want that?”

“I think it’s a lovely color” Astra answered, Kara’s wedding binder propped up on her knees as she curled up on the couch

“You know that dark grey isn’t really traditional for a wedding gown” I pointed out

“Yes, but we’re hardly having a traditional wedding,” she pointed out, she smirked “Alura told me that you asked her about Kryptonian wedding customs” she said, I fidgeted and squirmed

“I…wasn’t sure how you’d react” I began, she patted the cushion next to her

“Its true,” she began as I sat down “that my first marriage was one of convenience and not of love, at least not on my part anyway, but that doesn’t mean that I’d want to completely ignore my culture and my heritage simply because of that, and while there are aspects of a Kryptonian wedding ceremony that would be impossible to do here on Earth, that doesn’t mean I don’t wish to at least try”

“How I told you lately how much I love you?” I whispered, she chuckled

“You may have mentioned it once or twice” she murmured against my lips as she leaned in and kissed me. I groaned at the knock at the door

“Whoever that is had better go away if they know what’s good for them” I grumbled

“It’s Kara and James,” Astra announced “and my niece looks very excited”

“Must mean she’s got tickets to an N’Sync concert” I grumbled as I let them in

“Guess what?” Kara exclaimed as she shot inside, just vibrating with energy “Ms. Grant’s going to publish my article!!!” she squealed

“What? Kara, that’s great!” I laughed, she nodded

“It’ll be in tomorrow’s issue!” she added as another knock came at the door, Lucy and Winn peaking around the corner

“Hey,” Lucy said “just got an e-mail from Kara saying that you guys were celebrating about her article getting published?” she said as she, Winn, and Alura walked inside

“I’ll order some food,” Astra said as she got up “sister, did you want anything in particular?” she called out, the rest of us studied Alura she slowly looked between each of us, clearly not thinking about food

“No,” she finally said at last, smiling at all us “I have everything I need”

**END**


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